Monday, September 27, 2010

Large Hadron Collider Signal 'May Show Big Bang Conditions'

The "high multiplicity collision" signal picked up by the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Photo: CERN

From The Telegraph:

A never-before-seen signal in a collision at the Large Hadron Collider has raised hopes that the giant particle accelerator is on the verge of serious breakthroughs.

A series of high-energy proton-proton collisions observed at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector led to 100 or more charged particles being produced. These so-called "high multiplicity" collisions were unusual in that the resulting particles are "correlated" - associated with each other at the moment of their creation. One interpretation of the results is that the protons are being forced together at such high energies that the quarks that form them are released, becoming a free-flowing fluid of quarks and gluons like that which existed immediately after the big bang.

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