Physicists observe quark wakes in primordial liquid plasma at CERN

Physicists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have observed individual quarks leaving behind ripples, splashes, and swirling wakes as they pass through quark-gluon plasma, ScienceDaily reported. This primordial state of matter filled the universe in its earliest moments when temperatures reached trillions of degrees. The new observations provide clearer evidence that the plasma behaves like a true liquid. [1]

Quark-gluon plasma is an intensely hot mixture of elementary particles, specifically quarks and gluons, which move at nearly the speed of light, according to ScienceDaily. By tracking individual quarks blasting through the medium, researchers observed fluid-like disturbance patterns comparable to a duck moving through water. [1]

The Big Bang theory describes how the universe originally expanded from a state of extremely high density and temperature. Cosmological models based on this concept explain observed phenomena such as the cosmic microwave background radiation, galaxy redshift, and the abundance of light elements. [2]

ScienceDaily reported that this primordial material existed for only a brief fraction of a second in the early universe. Understanding how high-energy particles interact with quark-gluon plasma helps physicists clarify the physical characteristics and state of matter that existed immediately following the Big Bang. [1]