Matter Just Matters: What exactly is plasma? More specifically what is Quark Gluon Plasma, how does it work?

Matter Just Matters: What exactly is plasma? More specifically, what is Quark-Gluon Plasma? How does it work?

By: Ian Davis

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Introduction:

So my significant other made a mistake by saying that I was the hottest thing in the universe, wrong, just wrong; I remember this article saying that the hottest thing in the universe that we have observed was this special reaction in the chamber at CERN's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory where they managed to discover a type of matter called Quark-Gluon Plasma that can exist at 4-6 trillion degrees Celsius by smashing gold particles which created a 7-10 trillion degrees Fahrenheit reaction (~4 trillion degrees Celsius, which is hotter than a supernova explosion), which is just an astounding achievement for the human race as a whole. Nevertheless, what they created is truly the thing that baffled many scientists and me alike, this Quark-Gluon Plasma was only just a theory, and scientists directly created and observed a new state of matter. The best part is, I proved her wrong.

However, during primary and sometimes secondary education, all kids will learn about 3 to 4 states of matter, solid, liquid, gaseous, and plasma (they will include plasma if they are a good teacher). That is what I am here for.

My Thoughts Before Research:

First, let's analyze Plasma; what is it? First, let us explore all the other matters; solid has a definite shape and volume, the molecules and atoms connected in it are usually tightly packed and dense all together; if you add heat and pressure, the shape starts to break down. It becomes a liquid, where it does not have a definite shape but has a definite volume; the atoms and molecules are still packed but not nearly as tight and dense as solid. Now things are getting tricky; if we add more pressure and heat, we start to get a free flowing-non definite volume and nondefinite shape matter, called gas. Gas is not tightly packed and floats around wherever it wants unless specific properties are at play.

Now we start getting into the tricky zone: we are now at plasma, which requires so much heat and pressure, that it can only regularly exists at places like a star; here, the heat and pressure are so immense that it has completely different properties to a gas (even though it is meant to be an offshoot of gas) because even though it has no definite shape or volume and is less dense than liquid and solid states, it is (again) so hot and pressurized that atoms and molecules refuse to interact with each other. Therefore it is stripped of all positively and negatively nuclei, and most electrons float around freely, so like it is a soup of sub-atomic components. However, it still has its properties because of the strong interaction, which is the strongest force that we know so far.

Let's analyze the Quark-Gluon part; we know how quarks interact with one another via strong interaction, but we created something so hot and so unstable and pressurized in the CERN's. Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory that possibly interrupted that process at a large scale? That would be revolutionary. So my idea is that perhaps the quarks were manipulated because of the sheer energy being used throughout the process, that they broke strong interaction! Meaning that 4 trillion degrees Celsius has possibly broken the force is which strong interaction is clocked at (137 times stronger than electromagnetism, a million times stronger than weak interaction, and 10^38 as strong as gravity), meaning that around that temperature, strong interaction just broke, let's theorize:

Theory 1- Strong Break:

    My strong break theory, which would make Quark-Gluon Plasma exist, would mean that strong interaction has completely broken throughout the quark and the subatomic level. This would be unlikely as a theory because nothing can break from the information I know, yet anything is "possible," so there could be just a chance. Just like plasma, the strength of electronegativity and electromagnetism have been broken, therefore leaving particles as neutral and just floating around like a soup. However, instead, that is on a "smaller-bigger" scale with smaller components but bigger "strength" and more heat, pressure, and general force.

Theory 2- Weak Bend:

    This theory includes not a break but a bend. This is a stretch because the theory states that the amount of heat, pressure, and force has not completely disregarded strong interaction but instead bent and manipulated it. This would mean that quarks could stretch out and possibly create new types of subatomic particles and manipulate the atom as is. Not only would this be hard to do, but this would have been such great news that it would have been national, and last time I checked, I have not seen new quarks popping up from the CERN's Large Hadron Collider experiment, so this is unlikely.

My Thoughts After Research:

At the beginning of the universe, for a very, very, very short time (a few millionths of a second), there existed a period in which it was a hot soup of quarks (elementary particles) and gluons (the exchange particle that holds the rest of the quarks together), and it was very very very hot. The gluons are acted as a vessel by the strong force and hold the rest of the quarks together, forming neutrons and hadrons, which form atoms, molecules, cells, and so on. However, scientists wanted to recreate those first few seconds of intense heat and pressure, so they shot gold particles at each other at the speed of light, and that created the trillions of measured heat for just a few milliseconds.

During that small-time (10^-23 seconds), scientists discovered a taboo type of plasma in the form of a frictionless, dense, that acted like a liquid when they expected a gas-liquid lookalike. This blob-like matter has baffled scientists but left room for more questions: What happens if we increase the temperature (since this is the bare temperature Quark-Gluon Plasma could survive at) or add more pressure? Will the state of the matter still act like a blob/liquid? What happens if we add more than 6 trillion degrees Celsius? Will the quarks break down even further? 

Credit and found: https://www.uu.nl/en/research/institute-for-subatomic-physics/research/quark-gluon-plasma

Those questions have not been answered yet, but what we do know is that the true answer to our main question lies in the break down of our words: Quark-Gluon Plasma and what each component of the words do. Before we do that, we also need to understand that Quark-Gluon Plasma is a common example of  QCD matter or Quantum Chromodynamic matter. 

What is quantum chromodynamics? A summary is a quantum field theory in which strong interaction is described in terms of an interaction between the quarks mediated by gluons (the connected particle in between used as an exchange particle for the strong interaction) that uses its own color. Basically, it describes what strong interaction is.

So does that mean that QGP is just an example of QCM? Technically yes and no, it is a common example, but it is not the main topic. As I said before, I will keep reminding you of the question presented at the heading of this article, What is QGP?

Credit and found: https://www.bnl.gov/riken/images/QCD-620px.jpg

Now let's find the meaning in the words and their roots:

Before we do that, we need to understand the basic rules. An individual quark or gluon cannot be color neutral. Therefore, we cannot be happy and satisfied with itself; they would and will never stop the attraction of other opposite charges; therefore, they cannot be individual. Only a combination of two or more gluons can be color-neutral and can exist independently, free of quarks' master race; this is known as a glue-ball. We also need to understand me as an individual; this blog is more of an information rant rather than a well-articulated and grammar wise post; you are about to see a great example of this is the next paragraphs until the beginning of the next section, and that also the subsections of Quarks and Gluons will periodically contain the definitions, properties, and characteristics for one another.

Quarks: To sum it up, a quark is a type of fundamental particle that makes up common particles typically know as hadrons (famous examples of hadrons being protons, anti-protons, and neutrons) and also are found in different flavors which make up different types and "shape" of particles that have different properties, just like the proton and neutron. Known flavors are up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm. This does not include the elementary particles of leptons, gauge bosons, and scalar bosons. The quark is bonded to one another using a gluon, a smaller elementary particle that acts as a catalyst for the strong interaction, which is the most powerful force globally, only dealing in small interactions like these. When a quark is attempted to be separated via a large amount of energy, it creates an opposite partner to that same quark on the product end of the reaction. The results become an accumulation of energy to form the ingredients into two quark-antiquark dipole/string system. One part of the pair will replicate itself and fill in the gap of the previous now dipole turned quark; the replacement is most likely formed via the energy from the original quark's prying. As we said, the original quark is shot away in a pair of one regular quark and one anti-quark, the opposite version of that regular quark. As we know, Strong Nuclear Force only gets stronger when it is farther away from itself, which is the complete opposite of electromagnetism force, so that means these dipoles when stretched as far as possible, we see that their bonding only gets stronger the farther they get from one another. One "independent" quark will ALWAYS be paired with an opposition quark like an anti-quark because we will not see individual quarks in isolation.

Credit and found: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Gluon_tube-color_confinement_animation.gif

=All composed of quarks

Credit and found: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Bosons-Hadrons-Fermions-RGB-png2.png

NEGATIVE AND ANTI ARE REGULARLY INTERCHANGED BY THE SAME MEANING; THEY ARE OF THE SAME MEANING IN THIS ARTICLE

Gluon: These little guys are even smaller than the quarks but act like the glue's adhesive; the glue is strong interaction. They are used as exchange particles that practically allow the strong interaction to travel through and connect the quarks, just like a wire conduct electricity. Each gluon is possessed two color-charges, one regular "color" and one "anti-color" of a different type. When they are headed for something with the opposite like a positive red or an anti-red, they cancel out and leave what the other charge was left in the gluon, like this, for example, One Positive Green and Anti Red are added to One Negative Blue and One Positive Red, the red cancels out. The green and blue mixes to form their own, so on and so forth. In normal matter, quarks are color-confined, and what is the color, you ask? Well explained, it is another name for the strong force charge, quarks carry three types of color: red, blue, and green, but anti-quarks carry three types of anticolor, that being cyan magenta, and yellow. Gluons carry both types of colors; for example, you also see these six types: red-magenta, red-yellow, green-cyan, green-yellow, blue-cyan, and blue-magenta along with three "colorless gluons" which is red-yellow, green-magenta, blue-yellow, so space, where it has it is the main color and its anticolor, is known as colorless (since they cancel out) Three colorless gluons combine into two different states. Can gluons break and separate? Yes, they can split up into their positive and negative versions respectively and form their own "quarks," but it can also happen in reverse; this is called annihilation, which produces that same gluon. Gluons do not possess any electric charge and are equal because they have two different colors, each with their own opposite charge, so they do not mix. This whole process is called Quantum Chromodynamics, or QCD for short. So, now that gluons, which we know transport the strong force and interaction, have multiple different colors which they emit as well. Looking at a proton, which consists of three colors red, green, and blue, green quarks emit a green-yellow gluon and now becomes blue; blue quarks will absorb green-yellow gluons and become green. Red quarks emit red-yellow gluon and become blue; blue quarks now absorb red-yellow gluons and becomes red, and so forth. However, in standard terms, it means that One Quark holds a Positive Red, for example, and is added by a Gluon containing a Positive Blue and a Negative Red; the red cancel out and turn into just blue X=Blue. When this exchange happens, the quarks' flavor does not change just the color, meaning that an up-quark stays an up-quarks, but it can be red, blue, or green, and so on. Colorless gluons, however, are still emitted from the quarks but do not change another quark, they are just absorbed, and that is that. Nevertheless, gluons may interact with each other while being emitted and change or split, and then they go to their affix quark. Basically, when a quark emits a gluon, it changes color, and the other version of that quark absorbed the gluon, so it becomes stable and has three different colors in total. However, how do these nucleons stay together, you ask? Well, that is simple, when gluons, as we said before, are annihilated and created, the same can happen on a somewhat larger scale with quarks; they can be shot out of their boundaries with their partner charge and interact with the charge and color in another quark set, but here is the problem or solution, these large-scale versions are of the same color and are opposite charges like One Positive Blue and One Anti Blue, meaning that they can only be kept away from each other (due to the gluons recoil shooting them close the border of the neighboring particle) for a certain amount of time, which means that the neighboring particle stays very very close to each other and overcome the attraction and repulsion of the electromagnetic force (so the colors do not mix and create stuff in the middle and ruin color sets inside of nuclei) But do not forget, this is all happening at almost the speed of light. This practically means that protons and neutrons interact and stay with each other because they are attracted to one another and switch off their typical charges and colors just like gluons. 

Credit and found: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Feynmann_Diagram_Gluon_Radiation.svg/1200px-Feynmann_Diagram_Gluon_Radiation.svg.png

Credit and found: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3fcFTkgZUAU/maxresdefault.jpg

Plasma: Just as we said before, plasma is a type of matter which requires so much heat and pressure that it is a blob that does not act like any other type of matter, but it has an equal amount of charged positive particles, and the same amount of charged negative particles but again is so hot that they do not mix such sub-atomic particles flow around like a soup. Basically, when the matter is heated up enough, molecules begin to break due to the sheer amount of energy coursing throughout the entire area and the force connecting the individual atoms are broken, and then the electrons are starting to get pulled or pushed away; they have too much energy for to be surrounded by the nucleus of the atom, so they leave. The nucleus might hold onto some electrons initially (especially the ones closest to the nucleus). However, eventually, the temperature would be so high that they follow and leave as the electrons from before.

Credit and found: https://i.stack.imgur.com/8ATlb.jpg

So what is Quark-Gluon Plasma? As the temperature increases, the nucleus or nuclei start to be malformed. They are starting to be affected by the temperature and high energy, so then the next stage is that the protons and neutrons (nucleons) can no longer be held together by that same large-scale gluon interaction as said before, but that is not the end.

Credit and found: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/styles/borealis_photo_gallery_large_respondmedium/public/migrated/sc/_/images/banner-images/2017/blog-quark-120617-2.jpg?itok=hOFRPFvl

As we know, nucleons are each made up of three quarks, which are held very strongly by gluons (The force is so strong that under normal circumstances, it is impossible to take quarks out o the bond) but again, if we heat this matter hot enough, we can MELT the nucleons (protons and neutrons), and QGP is born. QGP is now a new state of matter, in which elementary particles are just free of their bonds from the strong attraction (of course under these certain circumstances), and these particles that float around in this matter are the free quarks and gluons, no longer bound to make an object. My theory of Strong Break is true. It would have been nice if I predicted this years ago and gotten myself a Nobel Prize.

(In particle physics, a pion is any of three subatomic particles: π⁰, π⁺ , and π⁻ . Each pion consists of a quark and an antiquark and is, therefore, a meson, credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pion)

Credit and found: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiX7nBggTZcoPmy9oKzM_uB6RVNQsOgIoH8YpFT5MjhDX6zAat_gh0StISUuS7pPUl6isYWTK2VTEPNzc5xlBLCeD8Fj1XTQW43J0ma1GXHOgS07ujTue9waV4igPePcvb0Myw6wH7c_mOynJYFn7ncP01NjImwDJYqn_exbfQ_=

There are theories of whether this can be heated even more because it is quark matter or the upper limit of pure thermodynamic temperature scale AKA absolute hot. The Hagedorn temperature is weird because it can pull quarks out of the vacuum-like anti-quarks and regular quarks interacting. 

Credit and found: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Qqhadrons.png

Explained:

So what is the answer to the question, what is plasma, specifically Quark-Gluon Plasma? 

To review, we know that everything is composed of something smaller than itself; humans and organisms are made of cells. Those are made of individual parts that help it function (organelles), and even those are made of molecules made of atoms, which are made of atomic components, which are now made of quarks and gluons. Using a basic rule of thumb, we know that when something heats up, it splits apart or moves away from one another, right? That it needs more energy/heat to move the smaller things apart? Just like humans, when it is winter, we stay close together to stay warm (keep thermal energy circulating between each other due to low amounts of it); when it is summer, we get away from each other (we stay away due to high thermal energy, each of which all of us have an excess amount of). The same happens to everything everywhere, just little variations that are all. You see when we add energy, most commonly known as heat. In this case, we see that it splits or moves things apart; the smaller the reaction space, the more energy is required. However, when dealing with something so small that it has never been seen, that means we will need a boat-load of energy to split it apart. However, the exact parts we are splitting apart is contained within the grasp of Strong Interaction, AKA the strongest force in the known universe. So using a whole lot of energy, we can split something apart, here we have to split something that is 6 thousand trillion trillion trillion times stronger than what we experience on Earth as gravity, also known as something being pulled towards the Earth explained, or dropping your pen and how fast it DROPS, that is gravity affecting it. So we throw two atoms, some of the smallest things we have ever really seen, at the near speed of light, just like the harder you throw a baseball, the farther and faster the baseball will go; anyways, once we have thrown these two atoms together they create a lot of power and heat that in turns creates a large reaction, a reaction that created 7-10 trillion degrees Fahrenheit of power. This is incomparable to think about; we as humans cannot think of that big of a number. However, when this reaction took place is fascinating; we know that plasma is when atoms and particles practically float around due to how hot it is, we know quarks make up sub-atomic particles. We know that gluons connect those same quarks, which make up their identity. Again, all of this is connected by what we call Strong Interaction (It has many nicknames like strong nuclear force and such, but I like Strong Interaction better, it all means the same thing), and that is the strongest force ever, stronger than anything we know. 

However, why is it called Quark-Gluon Plasma? Does that mean that we create a plasma characteristic like a soup that contains Quarks and Gluons like regular plasma would with atoms and particles? Yes, that is exactly correct, but this is so monumental because we created and used the sheer amount of energy and strength to break that Strong Interaction, which is the most powerful force in the observable universe human race did that.

However, basically, Quark-Gluon Plasma is just Quark and Gluon elementary particle soup, just a really hot and hard to get soup. You are probably thinking, I should have just scrolled to the bottom, and with that, I say, "boohoo, this took me MONTHS of research, you better have read it :)"

(P.S. It was theorized that "For up to 10−12 seconds after the Big Bang, most scientists think that the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces were unified. The state of matter in this time is unknown" credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_of_matter)

Sources: 

1. https://www.theverge.com/2012/8/15/3244513/cern-scientist-hottest-man-made-temperature

2. https://www.livescience.com/54652-plasma.html#:~:text=Plasma%20is%20a%20state%20of,two%20states%20behave%20very%20differently.&text=But%20unlike%20ordinary%20gases%2C%20plasmas,%2C%20called%20ions%2C%20roam%20freely.

3. https://inquiriesaboutus.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-sub-atomic-wonders-how-do-quarks-in.html

4. https://news.mit.edu/2010/exp-quark-gluon-0609

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_interaction#:~:text=At%20the%20range%20of%2010,times%20as%20strong%20as%20gravitation.

6. https://news.fnal.gov/2013/04/the-gluon-and-the-strong-nuclear-force/

7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark%E2%80%93gluon_plasma#:~:text=Scientists%20at%20Brookhaven%20National%20Laboratory's,of%204%20trillion%20degrees%20Celsius.

8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_particle

9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoR3hq5b5yE

10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df4LoJph76A

11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk9KZLaVItI

12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk9KZLaVItI

13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_confinement

14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_charge#:~:text=Color%20charge%20is%20a%20property,the%20everyday%20meaning%20of%20color.

15. http://sites.science.oregonstate.edu/chemistry/courses/ch121-3s/ch121/Answers%20to%20interesting%20questions/What%20Keeps%20the%20Nucleus%20Together.pdf