Primordial Matter: Light Nuclei Unexpectedly Forge Quark-Gluon Plasma

Physicists have found that quark-gluon plasma—the earliest form of matter in the universe—can be produced by colliding light atomic nuclei. Previously, scientific consensus held that this state of matter required the interaction of exclusively heavy elements, such as lead. The findings were published in the journal "Physical Review Letters". Quark-gluon plasma existed during the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang. During this stage, the universe was sufficiently hot and dense to prevent the formation of protons and neutrons, leaving matter as a "soup" of free quarks and gluons. As the cosmos cooled, these particles combined to create the building blocks of all known atoms. To test whether light elements could generate this plasma, a team from the University of Copenhagen and CERN conducted a series of experiments. Researchers collided oxygen-16 and neon-20 nuclei at speeds approaching the speed of light.