What is the hottest state of matter?

You might think the hottest state of matter is gas or even plasma state. But that is not the hottest state of matter. There is even more to that.

If I ask you ‘What is the hottest thing in the universe?’ you would probably answer it is the core of the sun, quasars, etc. But these are all kid’s stuff in the list of the universe’s hottest stuff. The core of the sun is about 15 million degree celcius. But even at this temperature there is only plasma state. To understand this blog better, read this blog first:

https://knowledgeglutton.home.blog/2021/05/24/the-fourth-state-of-matter/

https://knowledgeglutton.home.blog/2021/05/07/whats-beyond-protons-neutrons/

The typical state is when the electrons are knocked out from their atoms and they move freely in complete randomness like a swarm of bees. But what happens if we increase the temperature even further more?

First, when we increase further, the electrons are completely knocked off their atoms. The only nucleons (protons + neutrons) are left. Protons and neutrons consists of quarks which are bound by the gluons. The quarks are held so strongly that it is virtually impossible to seperate the quarks in normal conditions. It does not even happen in supernova or the hottest star. It can only be replicated in the most powerful particle colliders like LHC or RHIC with very special devices.

So, on increasing the temperature even more, at about 4 trillion degree celcius, the bond between the quarks is broken and the quarks and gluons aare no longer bound together moving randomly in all directions. What we now get is the quark-gluon plasma state.

This quark-gluon plasma state requires so much energy to create that naturally it happened only in the millionth of a second after the Big Bang.

And you might be still asking, what’s more, why don’t we heat up further and break the quarks and gluons and discover a new state of matter. You are probably right but when we try to divide quarks, they end up creating more quarks with the energy to divide them. So until now, quarks and gluons are one of the most elementary particles which cannot be divided further.

Check this video by Dr Don Lincoln, Fermilab Particle Physicist for a clear understanding.

https://link-to.net/260744/QuarkGluonPlasma