The Search for Quark Gluon Plasma at RHIC Veliz Perez Astronomy 007

Quark Gluon Plasma Quark gluon plasma is a phase of quantum chromodynamics that exists at very high temperatures and at very high densities. This plasma is believed to have existed during the Big Bang and scientists have been attempting to recreate it at Brookhaven’s National Laboratory’s Realistic Heavy Iron Collider. (RHIC)

What is plasma? Plasma is a distinct form of matter where at least one electron is dissociated from the many atoms and molecules. The free electric charges make the plasma electrically conductive.

Recreation of a plasma: how is this done? Collide two large nuclei. Scientists use accelerators to increase the energy of atoms to 100 billion volts (high temperature) to later collide the atoms together. The result is a fireball, where it expands under its own pressure but also cools as it expands. Essential to observe the particles that are yielded by the collision of the two nuclei.

The Creation of Plasma Heating up the nuclei makes the neutrons and protons overlap, pions (low energy quarks) are formed and in the plasma, quarks, anti-quarks and gluons can bond with one another freely.

How does this plasma relate to the universe? After the Big Bang, plasma was present for a few seconds, later it began to cool and coalesce into neutrons and protons which formed atoms, which later formed molecules, which allowed life to arise.

Results at RHIC RHIC succeeded but the plasma they found was more explosive than they expected. “’We expected to bring the nuclear liquid to a boil and produce a steam of quark-gluon plasma," said John Cramer from the University of Washington. "Instead, the boiler seems to be blowing up in our faces."

Quark gluon plasma puzzle Crammer and Miller propose that to study the plasma scientists have to work from what they see, the pions that are exploding, in order to figure out what is going on inside. Their findings suggest that as pions explode they will have to climb their way out of an attractive field but this distorts the data making the explosion seem bigger than it really is.

RHIC findings that are certain… From the RHIC data, research teams have identified that:  the collision center is under high pressure  the collision center behaves a lot like a fluid  very high energy particles do not escape (pions do escape because they are low-energy particles)

Works Consulted TRFncMww/g5_4_050.pdf TRFncMww/g5_4_050.pdf