Collision of heavy ions could generate the world’s strongest electric field

The world’s strongest electromagnetic fields are also being used in laboratory experiments around the world gearing up to recreate a mysterious phase of matter found in the early universe, according to a theoretical analysis by a RIKEN physicist and two colleagues. may be generated. This unexpected bonus could allow physicists to study entirely new phenomena.

According to the standard model of particle physics, when very hot matter is crushed by an extremely dense object, a plasma is formed consisting of subatomic particles known as quarks and gluons. However, experiments are required to confirm whether this is the case.

“Such expectations exist, but there are large theoretical uncertainties, especially at ultra-high densities,” says Hidetoshi Taya of RIKEN’s Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences Program. “Therefore, experiments are very necessary to study this extreme form of matter.”

In these experiments, physicists bombard heavy ions (charged atoms) and examine the resulting plasma.

In the past few decades, such tests primarily used high energy to create high temperatures. But recently, several experiments around the world have shifted their focus to intermediate energies that produce dense plasma.

“This is very important for understanding our origins, because such extreme conditions were achieved in the early universe, in neutron stars and exploding stars called supernovae,” Taya explains. .

Taya was already researching powerful lasers and the powerful electromagnetic fields they generate. He realized that similar but more powerful fields could be produced as an unexpected byproduct of these collision experiments. This possibility is intriguing because physicists suspect that such super-strong magnetic fields could cause new physical phenomena.

But until now, physicists have been unable to generate magnetic fields close to strong enough to confirm this possibility.

“A powerful laser is equivalent to about 100 trillion LEDs,” Taya says. “But even these lasers are weak compared to the magnetic fields needed to create these new high-field physics effects.”

Taya and his colleagues are currently conducting a field-theoretic analysis of these superstrong forces. The study is published in the journal Physical Review C.

“We have demonstrated that intermediate-energy heavy ion collisions can generate electric fields strong and long-lived enough to explore high-field physics that cannot be approached with other experiments,” Taya says.

But physicists cannot directly measure the generated magnetic fields, and planned collision experiments cannot confirm Taya’s analysis. All they can measure are the particles produced by the collisions and their properties.

“To actually test our predictions, it is important to understand how strong electromagnetic fields affect observable particles,” Taya says. “We are currently working on this.”