From Cosmic Soup to Galaxies: New CERN Data Rewrites the Big Bang Story

The Universe did not begin with a simple explosive burst, but rather as a pot of extremely dense "soup.” In the first moments after the Big Bang, reality resembled a boiling ocean of quarks and gluons. From this primordial broth eventually emerged hydrogen, helium, stars-and ultimately, us. Scientists long debated whether this initial chaos behaved like a gas or something else entirely. New data from CERN now provides a clear answer: the early Universe behaved like a true liquid.

A Microcosm in the Collider: Recreating the Big Bang

Understanding the nature of the early Universe on paper alone is nearly impossible. It is like trying to calculate the taste of soup by studying the formula of water. Theoretical models offer only a rough outline. On Earth, no substance naturally exists at such extreme density and temperature. The only solution is to recreate these conditions artificially by colliding particles in accelerators.

"Collisions of heavy ions at near-light speeds create quark-gluon plasma for a fraction of a second. We cannot observe it directly, but we study the cascade of particles it produces-like splashes of water after a stone hits the surface," explained physicist Dmitry Lapshin in an interview with Pravda.Ru.

Researchers at CERN focused on Z bosons-massive particles that mediate the weak force and can be considered distant relatives of photons. By analyzing their behavior and comparing results with theoretical models, physicists concluded that the plasma is not a chaotic gas, but a highly organized, fluid-like structure.

The Logic of a Drop: Why Plasma Is Not a Gas

The key evidence lies in wave patterns. Imagine dragging your finger through water-ripples follow in a coherent pattern. Do the same in sand, and particles scatter without forming a unified wave front. In quark-gluon plasma, scientists observed wave-like disturbances typical of liquids.

This discovery reshapes our understanding of the Universe's fundamental "code.” If the early Universe was liquid, then its evolution-from the birth of atoms to the distribution of matter-was governed by the laws of hydrodynamics. The architecture of the cosmos may have depended on the viscosity of this primordial fluid, much like biological systems depend on stable molecular structures.

"The liquid nature of the medium means that shock waves propagated smoothly. This directly influenced how matter clustered, eventually forming galaxies," noted astrophysicist Alexey Rudnev in an interview with Pravda.Ru.

From Soup to Galaxies: Why It Matters

Why does it matter what the Universe was like 13 billion years ago? Because the type of medium defines the rules of evolution. Shock waves behave differently in liquids, gases, and solids. In a liquid Universe, the "seeds” of galaxies and black holes formed under the influence of flows and vortices-much like predicting the shape of ice by studying how water moved before freezing.

The next goal for scientists is to measure the viscosity of this primordial plasma. How dense was it? How quickly did waves dissipate? Answers to these questions will refine cosmological models that describe the evolution of everything that exists.

"Studying such fundamental properties of matter helps us understand why our Universe looks the way it does. Even a slight change in plasma viscosity at the beginning of time could have prevented stars from ever forming," emphasized science historian Sergey Belov in an interview with Pravda.Ru.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the early Universe described as a "soup”? It is a metaphor for a mixture of quarks and gluons that had not yet formed protons and neutrons. Matter was so hot that particles moved freely in a uniform, dense state.

What is quark-gluon plasma? It is an extreme state of matter in which subatomic particles are not bound together. Under normal conditions, quarks are confined within atomic nuclei, but in this plasma they move freely.

How can a liquid become stars? As the Universe cooled, this "liquid” thickened, allowing particles to combine into atoms. Gravity then pulled these atoms together until nuclear fusion ignited, forming stars.

Will this help in the search for dark matter? Understanding plasma dynamics helps refine models of how matter distributed itself in the Universe, narrowing the search for unknown particles we call dark matter.