Beginning of the Universe
Janet Kuypers
9/29/23
I submit:
in the first inextricably hot
moment of the Universe,
plasma, our fourth state of matter,
may have been the first matter
when matter couldn’t exist in our
Universe.
—
It seems so insurmountable —
understanding where we came from,
how everything began.
People can talk about the Big Bang Theory —
and that’s exactly what it is, a theory,
but these science-types keep finding more evidence
to back up their crazy claims.
So... whether you believe
the Universe started as a speck of nothingness
with enough energy to create and define
everything — these theories still
seem beyond our feeble imaginations.
But after astrophysicists have speculated,
try to imagine this:
after that first great explosion
(wait, if there are no sound waves or light,
explosion is a way-too-human term)
after that first monumental expansion
of so much energy out of nothingness,
expanding at insurmountable speeds
and creating space itself...
all of this energy, massless energy,
too hot and energetic to create atoms,
was too hot to even form protons or neutrons.
That left the Universe these “quarks”1,
subatomic particles that couldn’t even bind
to create anything in that first second.
So, what do you get when quarks
are all too hot and bothered?
That’s when they clicked with gluons2
and created “a perfect liquid in its first moments”3.
Because when the Universe was too hot
for energy to trade some energy for mass
in the as-of-yet nonexistent Higgs field4,
the gluons could at least stick the quarks together,
making an irreplicable plasma.
Now, it may be a mistake to call it a liquid,
because plasma, like heated gas,
would be impossible to feel in our hands.
So, when they call it a liquid,
it’s not like water in serene hot springs
or almost-too-warm bubble baths
because in this fraction-of-a-second Universe
ten to the tenth power Kelvin
is beyond too warm.
Because really, with such scalding temperatures
and no matter to get in the way,
once these gluons group these quarks
all they can do is flow in the smoothest slide.
...We often call plasma the fourth state of matter,
but in this fractionally sized and timed Universe,
this quark and gluon plasma
may literally be the first state of matter
our Universe has ever known.
—
We look up at the night sky,
marvel at stars sparking
though our atmosphere
and we never think about the forces
that hold things together
in this ever-expanding Universe —
strong and weak nuclear forces,
electromagnetism and gravity
(the weakest of the four),
but in the very beginning...
all of these forces binding us together
had to start after this Universe started.
And if these science-types have their calculations right,
these fundamental forces started fractionally after5
quarks, gluons, and muons were created,
which only later clumped into protons, neutrons,
atoms — where matter could even be made.
So... although we can’t imagine it,
since we could never touch or feel plasma,
stop for a moment and imagine the ethereal feel
of a fog blanketing mountain tops...
or, better yet, sense the steam
of boiling water, maybe from piping hot coffee,
with all that energy, waiting to be released.
1 subatomic particles that combine to make protons and neutrons
2 messenger particles of the strong nuclear force that binds quarks
3 https://www.nature.com/articles/news050418-5
4 creation of the Higgs field: 10-12 s; https://www.iop.org/higgs-boson-and-history-univers&e035;#gref
5 after the universe started: creation of quarks, gluons, muons: 10-35 s; creation of the fundamental forces: 10-12 s;
both detailed in illustrations in “The Early Universe” at https://phys.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/University_Physics/Book%3
A_University_Physics_(OpenStax)/University_Physics_III_-_Optics_and_Modern_Physics_(OpenStax)/11%3
A_Particle_Physics_and_Cosmology/11.08%3A_Evolution_of_the_Early_Universe
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