Universal Goo 62
leapis writes "The NY Times reports that Big Bang Goo may have been found. Scientists at the Bookhaven National Laboratory have 'cracked open protons and neutons like subatomic eggs to create a primordial form of matter that existed when the universe was roughly one-millionth of a second old,' according to recent diagnosic tests."
Is that supposed to be a breaktrough? (Score:1, Funny)
For those who don't want to register at NYT... (Score:5, Informative)
The hot, dense substance, called a quark-gluon plasma, has managed to generate intense disputes in the 15 years or so in which scientists have pursued it. In 2000, a major European laboratory claimed that it had, for the first time, liberated particles called quarks from where they are normally trapped in protons and neutrons, a big step on the way to creating the plasma.
Possibly seeking to avoid the outpouring of criticism that followed, Brookhaven scientists at the meeting here recited a series of striking new measurements from their particle accelerator in Upton on Long Island, but refused to say that they had actually produced the plasma.
Creating such a plasma would fulfill some of scientists' biggest dreams, because it would enable them to study the earliest moments of the Big Bang, the colossal explosion that is believed to have been the birth of the entire universe.
"I think the most economical explanation of what we're seeing is a quark-gluon plasma," said Dr. William Zajz, a Columbia University physicist who is the spokesman for an experiment, Phenix. "But we're holding ourselves to rigorous, very scientific standards, precisely to distinguish it from previous claims."
Other scientists here said it was clear that the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider had achieved a milestone.
"The evidence for the quark-gluon plasma is overwhelming," said Miklos Gyulassy, a theorist at Columbia.
Each of the 197 protons and neutrons that make up a gold nucleus has three quarks and a handful of other particles called gluons that transmit the strong force that holds the quarks together. By the strange rules of subatomic physics, swarms of other quarks and gluons flit into and out of existence in each nucleus.
Physicists would like to study the quarks individually, but the force carried by the gluons is something like a rubber band that never loses its elasticity. So a given quark can never escape the embrace of another quark and roam free. The lone exception -- theoretically, at least -- should occur when a collection of ordinary particles becomes so hot and dense that their innards can spill out and form a kind of quark soup, the quark-gluon plasma.
That is the state that the universe is thought to have been in a few millionths of a second after the start of the Big Bang, before the zoo of ordinary particles like protons and neutrons and pions and kaons had coalesced from the primordial soup. A speck of that soup is what the Brookhaven collider seeks to generate, by smashing together gold nuclei at close to the speed of light.
Previous measurements have shown that the lump of material at the center of that collision is from 10 to 100 times as dense as normal nuclear matter. Its temperature is more than a trillion degrees.
The new data, from particle detectors known by their acronyms -- Brahms, Star, Phenix and Phobos -- showed that this searing goo had a remarkable number of properties expected from the plasma.
One finding focused on the almond-shape region, possibly filled with plasma, created when two spherical gold nuclei strike each other, but not quite head on. Theory predicts that fast particles trying to escape the region should become hung up in the gooey plasma and sometimes stopped completely.
That general effect, called jet quenching, had been seen before. But observations by Star have shown for the first time that particles escaping down the long dimension of the almond are more likely to be stopped than those escaping along the short dimension, where there is less plasma to travel through.
"This is demonstrating, if you will, that our unders
For future reference... (Score:3, Informative)
for example, here's [google.com] what came up by searching "big bang goo"
Re:For those who don't want to register at NYT... (Score:2)
Thanks for posting it though, 'cause I wasn't going to register...
bah! (Score:2, Funny)
How compatible ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:How compatible ... (Score:2, Insightful)
From what I know of String Theory (very little), it is consistent.
The "quark-gluon plasma" is a description from the point of view of the Standard Model of quantum mechanics.
Re:How compatible ... (Score:3, Insightful)
String theory *could* explain this, but it describes exactly the same behavior as quantum theory, only with math that is orders of magnitude more complex.
The "quark-gluon plasma" is a description from the point of view of the Standard Model of quantum mechanics.
Yes, and this would be the first time that this aspect of quantum mechanics had some actual proof that it can make predictions about the real world. Ve
Avoid NYT registration (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Avoid NYT registration (Score:2)
Better is to make it a bookmarklet, or use the Random NYTimes Registration Generator
See this link [majcher.com] for more info.
I can't believe that an article about scientists creating a type of matter only theorized of in the very begining seconds of the universe - how to avoid registration of the NYTimes page gets the highest mods.
I wouldn't call it "goo" (Score:2)
It's like extremely hot fire. Extremely hot.
Re:I wouldn't call it "goo" (Score:2, Funny)
How hot is it in elephants?
Re:I wouldn't call it "goo" (Score:1)
the same link [reflectionsoldiers.com]
Hmm, that [reflectionsoldiers.com] thingie is kind of neat and it's automatic.
To accomplish that, use the following syntax and post as "HTML Formatted". Unfortunately, one problem with posting as HTML Formatted is that you must
Don't worry the republicans will. (Score:1, Funny)
Because if you repeat it enough it becomes true enough.
Only lasted 1E-6 seconds? (Score:3, Funny)
Only lasted 1E-6 seconds?
Should have used Tupperware(TM)!
Re:Only lasted 1E-6 seconds? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Focus on modding up people. Save your negative mods for the ones that deserve it.
Re:Only lasted 1E-6 seconds? (Score:2)
I wont link to their page, but theres a group that is seeking to "lower the SNR of Slashdot" by modding things inappropriately. They recruit people from their website and post lists of messages that need to be modded. Long story short, they mod something Troll when it's insightful
Swallowed (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Swallowed (Score:1)
I'll be impressed when.... (Score:1, Troll)
Re:I'll be impressed when.... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I'll be impressed when.... (Score:2)
You know what I meant
Re:This stuff is like.. (Score:1)
Yolks Can Roam Free (Score:3, Funny)
Dumb analogy. Better would be "battered protons and neutrons like subatomic eggs into yolk-eggwhite sludge"
I know where to buy this stuff... (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm wondering... (Score:4, Interesting)
Previous measurements have shown that the lump of material at the center of that collision is from 10 to 100 times as dense as normal nuclear matter. Its temperature is more than a trillion degrees.
How do they measure things like this?
Re:I'm wondering... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I'm wondering... (Score:1)
Re:I'm wondering... (Score:4, Informative)
Soup of the day (Score:1)
Is this really necessary? (Score:4, Funny)
How do we know that we're not spinning off different universes all the time in the different spatial dimentions with these experiments?! What if we're making huge explosions in their universes? What if they're pissed off and know where we are?
This all smacks to me like shades of Steven King's "The Mist".
Re:Is this really necessary? (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps, but if so it already happens countless times every day anyway. The Earth's atmosphere (and every object in the universe) is continuously bombarded by cosmic rays - atomic neuclei with orders of magnitude more energy more than we can muster in any accelerator we could build.
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Re:Is this really necessary? (Score:2)
I know the detectors aren't very light, and therefore expensive to launch, but digging multi-kilometer tunnels lined with magnets isn't cheap either.
Re:Is this really necessary? (Score:4, Insightful)
One big problem is that there is no way to get the collisions to occur inside the detectors. The cosmic rays are coming at random from every direction. Any sort of "lens" can only focus stuff coming from a known direction. If the source direction is unknown then you can't focus anything.
A second big problem is that only a few hundred of the highest energy particles hit all of the earth per day - an enormous target. You could put up a football feild sized detector and wait years to see a single event.
A third problem is that the collisions will be extremely "unbalanced". In the Brookhaven collider they have two nuclei collide head-on, the speeds cancel out and the resulting fireball is pretty much "parked" in the center of the detector. If a cosmic ray hits a stationary target inside the detector then the resulting fireball will shoot out the back of the detector at nearly the speed of light. This compresses results into a hard to measure cone or jet.
A fourth lesser problem is that you don't know what particle came in and you don't know how fast it was going. Maybe it was a single insanely fast proton or maybe it was a vastly slower lead nucleus. The data would still be valuable, but it would be a major headache to give it solid meaning.
Despite all of that, these cosimic rays have still been harnessed do science. There are ground stations that look up at the sky and watch the shower of debris raining down from such events. It gives a pathetic view of the collision itself, but still useful.
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Re:Is this really necessary? (Score:1)
Re:Is this really necessary? (Score:2)
Just because our universe is zapped, doesn't mean that we are. In fact, what could happen is that the disappearance of our universe means that we are all dropped into another higher dimentioned universe that our current one is floating in. And of course we all know what happens then: SLIME TENTICLE SPIDERS!
Re:Is this really necessary? (Score:2)
Lets worry a little.
Any national lab with a picture of an 8 sided sno (Score:1)
disappointment (Score:2)
Blasphemy (Score:1)