💥 CERN Just Created a Tiny Version of the Early Universe

Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider have recreated the strange state of matter that filled the Universe shortly after the Big Bang — using atomic nuclei much smaller than researchers once thought would be sufficient.

The ALICE experiment smashed oxygen-16 and neon-20 nuclei together at enormous energies. The collisions produced evidence of collective hydrodynamic flow consistent with tiny droplets of quark–gluon plasma — the ultra-hot state in which quarks and gluons are no longer confined inside protons and neutrons.

But the most elegant part came afterward. The particles emerging from the miniature fireballs still carried information about the shape of the nuclei that created them. Oxygen produced a more rounded flow pattern, while neon generated a distinctly elongated signal — reflecting its predicted bowling-pin-like nuclear shape.

That means the same experiment can probe two extremes at once: matter as it behaved during the Universe’s first microseconds, and the tiny internal geometry of atomic nuclei.

Next, researchers want to go smaller still — potentially testing helium nuclei to discover just how tiny a system can be while still behaving like a liquid made of free quarks and gluons.

The Universe once existed in this state everywhere.

At CERN, it now survives for only a fraction of a fraction of a second.

#CERN #Physics #BigBang #QuarkGluonPlasma #ParticlePhysics #Science

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/gymp-vp87⁠