Ordinary Matter vs. Quark-gluon Plasma (IMAGE)

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Ordinary Matter vs. Quark-gluon Plasma

Caption

An ordinary proton or neutron (foreground) is formed of three quarks bound together by gluons, carriers of the color force. Above a critical temperature, protons and neutrons and other forms of hadronic matter "melt" into a hot, dense soup of free quarks and gluons (background), the quark-gluon plasma.

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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

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