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News and Views
Nature 443, 637-638 (12 October 2006) | doi:10.1038/443637a; Published online 11 October 2006
Particle physics: Did the Big Bang boil?
Frank Wilczek1
Abstract
Standard theories tell us that, at some point in the Universe's evolution, free quarks and gluons must have become bound together into the hadronic matter we see today. But was this transition abrupt or smooth?
The idea of phase transitions — abrupt changes in the state of matter — is familiar from such common sights as the bubbling water in a boiling kettle. Phase transitions on a grand scale may have taken place in the early Universe, both enriching and complicating Big Bang cosmology.
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