Physicists Recreate 'Little Big Bang' with Smaller Atomic Nuclei at CERN, Advancing Understanding of Early Universe and Nuclear Structure
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with the international ALICE experiment at CERN, have successfully recreated the primordial state of matter, known as quark-gluon plasma, using collisions of atomic nuclei significantly smaller than previously thought possible. This 'Little Big Bang' was achieved by smashing oxygen-16 and neon-20 nuclei together at nearly the speed of light. Historically, it was believed that only very heavy nuclei, such as lead, could generate this plasma, which is thought to have filled the universe during its first millionth of a second. The new experiments demonstrate that smaller nuclei can also produce this extreme state of matter. Scientists cannot directly observe the plasma, but they analyze the movement patterns of particles that emerge immediately after its brief existence. These patterns reveal information about the geometric shape of the colliding nuclei, with oxygen nuclei producing a rounded pattern and neon nuclei creating a distinctive bowling-p... 
