Scientists reveal the hidden force driving the universe’s hottest fluid
Physicists have mapped the acceleration of quark-gluon plasma, an exotic state of matter created in high-energy particle collisions. The study reveals that the edges of the plasma fireball act as acceleration hotspots, providing new insights into the thermodynamic properties of matter shortly after the Big Bang.
Why it matters
Mapping the dynamics of quark-gluon plasma helps scientists better understand the fundamental forces and conditions of the early universe.
When atomic nuclei crash into one another at nearly the speed of light, they briefly produce quark-gluon plasma, an extraordinarily hot state of matter in which quarks and gluons can move freely. This exotic material behaves like an almost perfect fluid and offers scientists a way to study conditions similar to those that existed shortly after the Big Bang.
Researchers have devoted considerable attention to the plasma's intense swirling motion and powerful electromagnetic fields. Its acceleration, however, has received far less scrutiny, even though it directly contributes to the fireball's rapid expansion. In hydrodynamics, acceleration is considered just as fundamental as vorticity, much as electric and magnetic fields are treated as equally important parts of electromagnetism.
Mapping Acceleration Across Collision Energies
A research team led by Fudan University physicists Yu-Gang Ma and Xu-Guang Huang set out to map how acceleration forms and changes inside quark-gluon plasma.
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