Science / Research
Physicists develop theory for heavy-quark motion in primordial plasma
The calculations offer predictions to compare with experiments, not a new observation of the Big Bang.
Status: source-checked.
Physicists at MIT and the University of California, Santa Barbara developed a theory describing how particles moving near light speed are pushed and pulled through a fluid, MIT reported Thursday. They aim to use it to study quark-gluon plasma.
According to MIT, the calculations indicate that unusually large changes in a heavy quark’s momentum can occur more often than a simple bell-shaped model predicts. Large changes that slow the quark are not equally likely as those that speed it up, according to the researchers’ account.
The team says predictions could be compared with particle-accelerator experiments to probe the plasma’s microscopic structure. MIT identified Physical Review Letters as the publication venue; the reported advance is theoretical.
What we know / what we don't
What we know
- Physicists at MIT and the University of California, Santa Barbara developed a theory describing how particles moving near light speed are pushed and pulled through a fluid, MIT reported Thursday. They aim to use it to study quark-gluon plasma.
- According to MIT, the calculations indicate that unusually large changes in a heavy quark’s momentum can occur more often than a simple bell-shaped model predicts. Large changes that slow the quark are not equally likely as those that speed it up, according to the researchers’ account.
- The team says predictions could be compared with particle-accelerator experiments to probe the plasma’s microscopic structure. MIT identified Physical Review Letters as the publication venue; the reported advance is theoretical.
What we don't know
- No new direct experimental confirmation is reported here. The paper’s calculations were not independently reproduced.
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