But data generated at lower energy machines at CERN, the European physics research center near Geneva, Switzerland, and at Brookhaven have pointed the way. Many scientists are convinced the new Brookhaven collider will open the door to a new understanding of how nuclear matter behaves under extreme conditions. Physicists use sophisticated detectors, some the size of houses, to sort through the resulting subatomic debris for clues to what happened during the violent collisions. The Brookhaven teams use gold ions, one of nature's heaviest elements, because they are packed with protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons have been found to be composed of trios of more fundamental building blocks called quarks and the gluons that bind them together.
Much more analysis is needed, however, and theorists are sure to examine the data carefully.
While we live in a universe dominated by ordinary matter, theorists believe there were nearly equal amounts of matter and anti-matter at the dawn of the cosmos, and that ratio should be reflected in any fleeting production of primordial matter in the laboratory as well. Produced by Newsday Electronic Publishing.