TIFR scientists predict properties of matter soon after birth of universe

“The universe began with a big bang and created hot matter. This became cooler and eventually became the matter that we all know. It is known that matter is made up of atoms which have nuclei and electrons. However,the universe was born as a hot soup of quarks,gluons and other particles. As it cooled,the soup of quarks and gluons eventually turned into protons,neutrons and the other atomic nuclei which exist today. The theory of quarks and gluons is called “Quantum ChromoDynamics or QCD,” said professor Sourendu Gupta,principal investigator from TIFR and a member of the IGLTI group.

“The description of this soup or ‘bulk matter’ immediately before it turned into protons and neutrons,is one of the hottest research topics in physics. The results published have taken a significant step in this direction and have predicted one aspect of this bulk matter,” he said.

Gupta explained that the unique aspect of the bulk matter is that it can change state as the outside conditions,temperature,pressure and density are altered. “The biggest challenge faced by scientists for years has been to create a map of when it changes state and how one can change these external conditions. The analysis conducted by us,has for the first time,shown that the temperature of this bulk matter at the point when it crosses over to a state of protons and neutrons was about 2 trillion Celsius. It thus enabled us to draw a part of this map,” said Gupta.

The predictions carried out by theorists at TIFR were compared to the results of the experiments that were conducted by smashing gold nuclei at very high energies to recreate the conditions that existed at the beginning of the universe at the Brookhaven Laboratory.

This is by far the largest temperature at which laboratory experiments have probed the states of matter. The surface temperature of the sun is about 5,600 Celsius,so the “bulk matter” is about 350 million times hotter. “The predictions were based on both theoretical and experimental work and has initiated a new era in quantitative measurements of this kind of matter. It will lead to several new and exciting developments,” added Gupta.