Large Hadron Collider reveals evidence of Big Bang matter in surprisingly small collisions

Scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have uncovered compelling new evidence that even relatively small atomic collisions can recreate the extraordinary state of matter that filled the universe moments after the Big Bang. Known as quark-gluon plasma, this exotic substance forms at temperatures more than 100,000 times hotter than the center of the Sun, causing ordinary particles to break apart into their fundamental building blocks. Large Hadron Collider reveals evidence of Big Bang matter in surprisingly small collisions.

All four of the collider’s major research collaborations, ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb, have now reported signs that this primordial form of matter can emerge when oxygen and neon nuclei collide. The findings come one year after the first-ever oxygen collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The results challenge a long-standing assumption about the enormous forces needed to create such an extreme substance.

They also offer scientists a new way to investigate the conditions that prevailed during the universe’s earliest moments. Recreating the Extreme Matter of the Early Universe Quark–gluon plasma (QGP) is an unusual state of matter that appears under tremendous pressure and heat.