A state of matter in which quarks and gluons are freed of their strong attraction for one another under extremely high energy densities.
Questions tagged [quark-gluon-plasma]
56 questions
9
votes
1 answer
Why did the quark epoch occur earlier than the lepton epoch?
I don't understand the reason and hypothesis behind why the quarks appeared first—as per the big bang cosmology—shortly after the strong and electroweak force separated. We don't know what the quarks or the electrons are composed of, so how can we…
7
votes
2 answers
What is Hagedorn Temperature?
I would like to get an understanding of the value of the Hagedorn temperature and the units this temperature can be given in. Is the Hagedorn temperature the maximum temperature, just as $0\ K$ is the lowest temperature? What happens to matter when…
Jens Vigen
- 125
7
votes
0 answers
Doubts about quark confinement, the pole mass and the quark gluon plasma
I have seen written a few times that the notion of a pole mass for a quark contradicts the quark confinement picture and that non-perturbatively it is expected that the quark pole mass be infinite. Nevertheless, I have also heard about the quark…
Yossarian
- 6,235
7
votes
1 answer
Reference on stages of heavy ion collisions in particle physics
Is there any reference (book/review article etc.) where the physics of heavy ion collisions is overviewed?
To be absolutely clear about things, I am looking for a introductory review which covers the physics aspects of the progression through the…
User Anonymous
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6
votes
3 answers
Can free quarks exist?
I know that currently free quarks do not exist but can they exist under any circumstance? The Physicsworld article Quarks break free at two trillion degrees states that they do but I want a knowledgeable, second opinion.
Secondly, if they cannot…
Sanket Dash
- 61
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6
votes
1 answer
Detecting the electroweak unification in data of quark gluon plasma
Electroweak unification is discussed in the Big Bang model and variant proposals, and there is a transition at energies of 100 GeV where the EW symmetry is unbroken and a quark gluon plasma phase dominates.
In my answer to the question
>What…
anna v
- 236,935
5
votes
0 answers
Is there some truth to the "vacuum as bubbling soup" story?
There are many discussions on this site about the nature and reality of vacuum fluctuations. The general consensus seems to be that this it falls into the Lie-to-Laymen category. On the other hand, there are simulations like the ones by Derek…
jak
- 10,431
5
votes
0 answers
How would a quark star maintain degeneracy near the surface?
I'm still not exactly understanding how a quark star could possibly exist for more than a fraction of a second. Neutron stars are already hypothesized to have degenerate quark matter at their cores, and I'd assume that that matter couldn't extend…
Snowshard
- 170
5
votes
2 answers
Are perturbative and non-perturbative QCD both signs of new physics?
I was studying about quarkonia systems and reached this page at CERN Courier. Here, I came across the following text:
While the failure to reproduce an experimental observable that is perturbatively calculable in the electroweak or strong sector…
SchrodingersCat
- 4,994
5
votes
1 answer
Relationship between plasma physics and quark gluon plasma
To what extent do the ideas common in modern plasma physics, such as magnetohydrodynamics, cold plasma models, common types of plasma waves, Maxwell's Equations, etc, relate to the study of quark gluon plasma? I have heard that quark gluon plasma…
Physics_Plasma
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5
votes
4 answers
How did photons and electrons arise out of the quark-gluon plasma?
I am just beginning to learn about the ideas of the early universe, so this is probably a beginner question.
I understand that protons and neutrons (which are baryons, which are hadrons) are made out of quarks, and quarks are held together by gluons…
Lance Pollard
- 2,284
4
votes
2 answers
If quarks can't be isolated in the first place, how did they become confined in the early universe?
On one hand, we know that quarks cannot exist in isolation. This is because the energy required to dissociate a quark-antiquark pair in a meson (or quarks in a hadron) will create a mesons (or hadrons) if we try to separate. For example, see these…
Solidification
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4
votes
2 answers
When/ how were/are quarks formed?
We know that all particles can eventually be converted into energy. We know also that electrons were and still are formed by pair production from a 1MeV photon.
Do physicists have yet any idea how quarks were formed? When did that happen, before BB?…
user157860
- 691
4
votes
2 answers
Is it sensible to talk about protons at the time when the universe was a quark-gluon plasma?
I'm currently studying from "Particle Astrophysics" by Perkins.
On page 132 it says:
After $kT$ fell below the strong quantum
chromodynamics (QCD) scale parameter ∼ $200$ MeV, the remaining quarks,
antiquarks, and gluons would no longer exist…
Joshua
- 1,373
4
votes
0 answers
Strong force equivalent of electricity?
Could colour charges be manipulated into something analogous to the flow of electricity, and if so, would there be any situation in which circuits of this kind would be useful? For example, given a sufficiently large, stable quantity of quark-gluon…
E Reid
- 41