Posted on 04/26/2017 7:31:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin
In what we might call normal matterthat is the familiar atoms that we all learn about in high schoolprotons and neutrons are made up of quarks. Those quarks are held together by other particles called gluons. (Glue-ons, get it?) In a state known as confinement, these quarks and gluons are permanently bound together. In fact, quarks have never been observed in isolation.
The LHC is used to collide particles together at extremely high speeds, creating temperatures that can be 100,000 times hotter than the center of our Sun. In new results just released from CERN, lead ions were collided, and the resulting extreme conditions come close to replicating the state of the Universe those few millionths of a second after the Big Bang.
In those extreme temperatures, the state of confinement was broken, and the quarks and gluons were released, and formed quark-gluon plasma.
So far, this is pretty well understood. But in these new results, something additional happened. There was increased production of what are called strange hadrons. Strange hadrons themselves are well-known particles. They have names like Kaon, Lambda, Xi and Omega. Theyre called strange hadrons because they each have one strange quark.
If all of this seems a little murky, heres the dinger: Strange hadrons may be well-known particles, because theyve been observed in collisions between heavy nuclei. But they havent been observed in collisions between protons.
The creation of quark-gluon plasma at CERN provides physicists an opportunity to study the strong interaction. The strong interaction is also known as the strong force, one of the four fundamental forces in the Universe, and the one that binds quarks into protons and neutrons. Its also an opportunity to study something else: the increased production of strange hadrons.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
I had a professor it college who explained the science done with particle colliders as smashing two watches together and looking at the parts that fly off to figure out how a watch was made.
I don’t know about how it was made, but certainly the only way to find out what it’s made out of.
Too much Viagra?
Heheheh. Except what are being smashed together aren’t nearly as complex as a watch.
Good analogy! ;-)
That’s good
Lysdexic, are you? :)
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. It is likely we have only scratched the surface of the complexity present on those scales.
Well, he was a pretty sociable Ferengi.
“Except what are being smashed together arent nearly as complex as a watch.”
Go ahead and craft us an electron then. Should be simple...
Ahhhhhh.....a scientific Demolition Derby.
I like it!
creating temperatures that can be 100,000 times hotter than the center of our Sun...
That must require a YUGE SPF number.
lol
Too much Viagra?
Today's winner!
Properties of matter and energy are far more complex than a mechanical device like a watch.
Science geek memes? Now I’ve seen everything.
“That must require a YUGE SPF number.”
All your SPF are belong to us.
lol
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