A group of physicists has discounted a possible avenue for investigating subatomic particles and the early Universe.

Quantum-chromodynamics theory posits that subatomic particles — such as quarks — are bound together by 'strong interactions'. It is these interactions that explain most of the mass of the visible Universe. According to the theory, the interactions weaken at extremely high temperatures, giving way to what is known as a quark plasma phase.

Through a series of complex mathematical calculations and a sophisticated computer program, Sandor Katz and his colleagues at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary, and the University of Wuppertal in Germany, elucidated a key facet of this theory (page 675).

They wanted to know whether the transition between phases was smooth and continuous, or abrupt, and found it to be the former. So, when the Universe formed, a continuous transition occurred from the plasma phase to the strong interactions phase.

If the transition had been more abrupt, particle physicists might have been able to use it to investigate the formation of the Universe or relics of the transition. But, says Katz, “it's not a big surprise for them. This was already expected, but it hadn't been proved.”