Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Particle physics

Did the Big Bang boil?

Nature volume 443, pages 637–638 (2006)Cite this article

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. For example, the early Universe's gas of quasi-free quarks and gluons must at some point have condensed into composite particles bound together by the nuclear strong force. These particles, made up of quarks stuck together by gluons, which act as the mediator particles of the strong force, are the baryons — the class of particle that includes protons and neutrons — and the mesons of today's normal 'hadronic' matter.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Entering a new phase.

References

  1. Aoki, Y., Endrődi, G., Fodor, Z., Katz, S. D. & Szabó, K. K. Nature 443, 675–678 (2006).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02142, Massachusetts, USA

    Frank Wilczek

Authors
  1. Frank Wilczek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wilczek, F. Did the Big Bang boil?. Nature 443, 637–638 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/443637a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/443637a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing