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Scientists recreate an analogue of matter from the universe’s first microseconds by colliding heavy atomic nuclei at very high energies. For an instant, the collision can produce a tiny, extremely hot, dense state called quark–gluon plasma (QGP), in which quarks and gluons are no longer confined inside protons and neutrons. The plasma rapidly expands and cools; researchers study the particles that emerge to infer what happened inside. They recreate a state of matter—not the Big Bang itself or the scale of the early universe.
How do scientists make quark–gluon plasma?
At facilities such as CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, beams of fully ionised atoms—heavy ions—are accelerated and made to collide. CERN describes head-on gold or lead collisions at energies of several trillion electronvolts; ATLAS describes nuclei accelerated above 100 GeV and close to the speed of light. These are facility-specific descriptions, not one universal collision setting. CERN explains the heavy-ion method, while ATLAS describes its heavy-ion studies.
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In the collision’s extreme energy density, the quarks and gluons that normally make up protons and neutrons become deconfined, forming QGP. This state is relevant because the early universe also contained such matter during its first microseconds. The laboratory event is microscopic and short-lived; it is an analogue that lets physicists investigate the behavior of that kind of matter.
What happens after the collision?
- The nuclei collide. Their energy is concentrated in a tiny region.
- A hot, dense fireball forms. Quarks and gluons briefly move in a deconfined state.
- The fireball expands and cools. Quarks and gluons recombine into ordinary particles, including pions, kaons, protons and neutrons. CERN describes the result as a “blizzard of ordinary matter” speeding away in all directions.
- Detectors record the outgoing particles. Instruments such as ALICE measure their properties and patterns. ALICE itself is a 10,000-tonne detector measuring 26 metres long, 16 metres high and 16 metres wide; those dimensions describe the detector, not the fireball. See CERN’s ALICE overview.
- Physicists infer the plasma’s properties. They compare the measured particles with theoretical models and look for multiple kinds of evidence.
The detector does not take a literal picture of the plasma. By the time particles reach it, the fireball has already evolved and cooled. The evidence is in the particles’ energies, directions and relationships to one another.
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What clues reveal the plasma?
Jet quenching
A high-energy collision can produce jets—sprays of particles associated with energetic quarks or gluons. When two jets travel in opposite directions, one may be weakened more than the other if it crosses the dense medium. The imbalance and its dependence on the path through the fireball help physicists study how the medium absorbs energy. CERN gives a density comparison of 30 to 50 times that of an ordinary nucleus for the fireball crossed by jets; this is CERN’s characterization, not a measurement that applies to every collision. CERN’s heavy-ion explainer describes the effect.
Collective flow
The collision’s geometry leaves an imprint on the directions in which outgoing particles travel. ATLAS compares these angular patterns with fluid-dynamics calculations to study the collective expansion of the medium. The pattern is measured in the particles; interpreting it as evidence about the plasma involves comparison with models. ATLAS explains how it studies these signatures.
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Strange particles
The production of strange quarks and particles containing them is another diagnostic. ATLAS has called multistrange antibaryon production a “gold standard” for evidence of QGP formation, but it is one line of evidence, not a standalone proof. ATLAS also cites a specific NA57 experiment result: certain hadrons made entirely from newly created quarks were 15–20 times more abundant in heavy-ion reactions than in the expected reference proton–proton system. That figure applies to those hadrons and that comparison, not to all strange particles or every collision system. ATLAS provides the context for these measurements.
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Why collide different kinds of nuclei?
Changing the nuclei changes the size and shape of the collision system, which helps researchers examine how geometry and system size affect the signals. Lead and xenon collisions can create relatively large plasma droplets. Smaller systems help probe the minimum size at which QGP-like behavior may appear and help distinguish the effects of nuclear shape from those of collision geometry.
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On 18 September 2025, CERN reported that the LHC’s first high-energy oxygen–oxygen and neon–neon collisions had produced flow measurements. The results supported a role for nuclear geometry and strengthened evidence about neon’s elongated shape. The same report discussed lead–argon and lead–neon fixed-target results based on data recorded in 2024. These are findings reported on that date, not a statement about the LHC’s current operating schedule. Read CERN and ATLAS’s 2025 account.
Proton–proton and proton–nucleus collisions also show collective features resembling those in nuclear collisions. ALICE uses such systems to explore the limits of QGP formation; observing a similar feature does not by itself establish that every small collision creates a plasma. ALICE outlines this broader physics context.
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How hot is the fireball?
CERN’s ALICE overview says LHC collision temperatures can be more than 100,000 times hotter than the centre of the Sun. This is CERN’s stated comparison for collision temperatures, not a temperature that applies to every event or a direct thermometer reading of a visible object. The fireball is inferred from its effects on particles as it rapidly cools. CERN’s ALICE overview gives the comparison.
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