From the May 2006 Scientific American Magazine | 2 comments

The First Few Microseconds ( Preview )

In recent experiments, physicists have replicated conditions of the infant universe--with startling results

Indications of liquidlike behavior of the quark-gluon medium came early in the RHIC experiments, in the form of a phenomenon called elliptic flow. In collisions that occur slightly off-center--which is often the case--the hadrons that emerge reach the detector in an elliptical distribution. More energetic hadrons squirt out within the plane of the interaction than at right angles to it. The elliptical pattern indicates that substantial pressure gradients must be at work in the quark-gluon medium and that the quarks and gluons from which these hadrons formed were behaving collectively, before reverting back into hadrons. They were acting like a liquid--that is, not a gas. From a gas, the hadrons would emerge uniformly in all directions.

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