All matter around us is composed of atoms. Each atom is made up of yet smaller parts, protons, neutrons, and electrons. More fundamentally, protons and neutrons are made up of quarks (3 quarks each). The force that binds the protons and neutrons inside the nucleus of an atom is called the strong nuclear force, and has a particle equivalent called the gluon. Scientists believe that at the time of the creation of our Universe (that is, the Big Bang), the energies were so high that protons and neutrons were melted into constituent quarks and gluons, thus forming a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). Now for the first time, such primordial matter might have been created in a lab :).
Quark Gluon Plasma (Courtesy: PPARC)
RHIC uses accelerators to increase the energies of gold atoms up to 100 billion electron volts inside a 4-kilometre ring and then collides them together. When a gold nucleus collides with another gold nucleus the constituent protons and neutrons are thought to melt together to form a QGP. The new material formed deviates from our current understanding of how a QGP should behave. This is exciting news, as it means that there are some things that are still not clear, and therefore more study is necessary to understand the underlying processes that govern our world at its smallest!
Quark Gluon Plasma (Courtesy: PPARC)
RHIC uses accelerators to increase the energies of gold atoms up to 100 billion electron volts inside a 4-kilometre ring and then collides them together. When a gold nucleus collides with another gold nucleus the constituent protons and neutrons are thought to melt together to form a QGP. The new material formed deviates from our current understanding of how a QGP should behave. This is exciting news, as it means that there are some things that are still not clear, and therefore more study is necessary to understand the underlying processes that govern our world at its smallest!
QGP In Lab
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16 Comments:
I wonder just how infintesimal (sp?) the beginning of the bigbang was prior to it's growth. Was it's beginning so small that we can, as of yet, not measure it, or as your post suggests, are we now able to finally create the bigbang and thereby create a new universe. What would happen to our universe?
I just wonder about this stuff from time to time.
According to classical physics (Einstein's general relativity), the universe is supposed to have started from a point. If you add quantum mechanics, the universe is supposed to have started from a infinitesimal ball, of size 10^-35 meters (a millionth billionth billionth of radius of a hydrogen atom!!). This ball exploded, and expanded into the universe we see today. Scientists have found validations of this theory from the Microwave Background Radiation, and how it looks like.
But this expansion was not like expanding a balloon. A balloon expands into already existing space (when we blow a balloon, it becomes larger, and occupies more space). In contrast, the bigbang create the space we live in! So, if scientists are able to manage a bigbang, it need not destroy our own space. It might expand into a parallel space, and to us, who are outside this new space, this bigbang will look like a black-hole.
In that sense, it might very well be that whenever black-holes are created, a new universe is created 'inside' it. I say 'inside', but there is no appropriate word for it... the interior of the black-hole pinches off from our space, and forms its own identity (just like a bubble would pinch off from a surface).
So, if and when scientists are able to create a black-hole (which takes a lot of energy to create, and so it currently beyond the technology), we might be spawning a new universe. This idea is not proven yet, but it is possible.
Who knows, perhaps our universe was started like that too?! But I will hesitate to call that creator, god.
i liked ur comment on big bang, its easy to understand even for me:D
but its tough for my mind to comprehend, no space and then the space created. but the ballon illustration was good.
interesting to think on the black holes... would have to search within ur blog on black holes:)
but now there r black holes in the universe, and if the black hole contains their own universe..and if all this is in another black hole...hmmm amazing to just think on it for a minute:)
but if scientists create another black hole and thus a new universe, would it be safe to do it from earth,or would they have to do it from space?
If this was the case, surely there wouldn't be enough matter to create such a universe as our own?
After all, a typical Black Hole is only consuming a minuscule fraction of the matter of our own universe.
I did read that a 'typical' Black Hole consumes around or about ten million tons of matter per second.
Also, from my understanding of our universe -- and as you'd alluded to earlier -- the universe is obviously expanding, but if it were possible to stand outside of the universe, there would be no perceptible growth at all.
In effect, the principle is much like the Tardis from Doctor Who.
All very, very odd...
Wayne: It is true that not enough matter will be present. But what is matter? One kilogram in our space might not be one kg in this new space! It all depends on the physical constants (speed of light, Planck's constant, Gravitational constant, Fine structure constant), and this new space might have a totally different set of them.
The question of standing 'outside' the universe sounds ok, but it has no meaning. For a 2D creature (who only has understanding of left-right, front-back, no up-down) stuck to the earth's surface, there is no possibility of looking from "outside the earth". Same with us, we cannot leave (and it might be that there are no 4D creatures possible who might be able to do it) this 3D space.
Also, different parts of the universe might be expanding at different at different rates, since it also depends on the concentration of matter in those parts. Our part of the universe is expanding at the rate of 80km/sec/mega-parsec (Hubble's constant). This is so small compared to the size of the universe, that it is quite imperceptible, except in very fine measurements.
Scientists are getting smarter. They know what to put (or not to put) in the proposals. Sad, really :-(, that scientists are being forced to act like politicians.
Outside of the universe, higher dimensions exist that would tax our very limited perception of all things. So there would be no physical possibility of such a thing taking place...
Um... higher (spatial) dimensions need not exist outside our universe. According to string theory, all the other dimensions are perhaps rolled up into a small ball. But the question is still open, and the inflationary model of the universe does suggest something like a 4D space... so lets see where it goes!
and didnt know black holes could explode:)
vl
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