eli5: what is quark-gluon plasma?
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At very high energies, high heat and pressure in other words, the matter we’re familiar with breaks down on a fundamental level. Matter is composed of electrons in a cloud around a nucleus of protons (and usually) neutrons. At energy levels we can create, for example a VERY hot hot flame, the electrons are stripped from their atoms and we have a plasma, another state of matter like liquid and solid.
If you crank up the heat and pressure far beyond anything we could manage however, simulating the state of the universe at a VERY early time, there’s another breakdown of matter. The protons in the nucleus are themselves composed of quarks, a subatomic particle which experiences the Strong Nuclear Force, mediated by gluons. Gluons are the force-carrier particles of the Strong force, like photons are the force-carriers of the Electromagnetic force.
At those super-high energies the normally confined quarks are no longer confined, protons fall apart and you end up with a new sort of plasma, free electrons, free quarks, and free gluons in a hot soup.
That is a quark-gluon plasma.
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