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Hottest, Densest Matter Ever Observed

Posted by michael on from the bang-up-job dept.

meitsjustme writes "Experiments at the Brookhaven National Laboratory have created the hottest, densest matter ever observed, recreating conditions a fraction of a second after the birth of the universe, scientists announced today."

7 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Hottest densest matter?? by stanmann · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let me guess, it is a cross between Natalie portman and the SCO board of directors.

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  2. Surely... by BrokenHalo · · Score: 4, Funny

    The densest matter ever observed has to be G.W. Bush's brain :-)

  3. They apparently haven't seen... by bucklesl · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...my pancakes.

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  4. How Much, How Hot? by 4of12 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The linked article is kind of high-level and sketchy on details. Some questions come to mind:

    • How many eV?
    • How much volume did it occupy?
    • How long did it live?
    • How did it decay?
    • What kind of cold matter did it condense into?

    Maybe someone knows a URL for the 3 preprint PDFs going to Phys Rev Lett?

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    1. Re:How Much, How Hot? by Ioldanach · · Score: 4, Insightful
      How does one duplicate THE creation of THE universe (emphasis added)?

      One doesn't. If one were able to, it would almost certainly destroy what's here right now. What one does is duplicate "conditions a fraction of a second after the birth of the universe."

      Which is an entirely different situation. It is merely duplicating in a small bit of matter the state of all matter that existed at the time, a soup of all the stuff that makes particles.

      I'd say you were being too literal, except nowhere before your statement did I see any mention of someone duplicating the creation of the universe. Thus, I'd have to say you're reading a little much into the initial statement.

    2. Re:How Much, How Hot? by bholzm1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      PHOBOS paper
      STAR paper
      PHENIX paper

    3. Re:How Much, How Hot? by Peter+T+Ermit · · Score: 4, Informative
      Been a long time since I looked at the specs, but:

      * I think it's 200 GeV/nucleon.
      * I believe that the volume is the same order of magnitude of the nucleus itself -- probably a few times larger than a nucleus.
      * I don't know. A very short time, no doubt.
      * It decayed by condensing into ordinary hadrons, just as steam condenses into liquid water. Lots of energy was shed by the creation of extra matter.
      * Between condensation and mass-energy conversion, you get ordinary matter -- baryons, mesons, leptons, and the force carriers. (And, presumbably, other beyond-SM particles that we don't know about yet.)