At the largest research machine in the world, physicists have eyes only for “Alice”. The acronym stands for “A Large Ion Collider Experiment”. The project is in the particle accelerator of the European organization for nuclear research (Cern). The researchers are thus the first fraction of a second after the big Bang on the track.

Since Wednesday, the accelerator runs with lead ions instead of protons. The lead ions are brought into the 27-kilometre ring-shaped Tunnel under the ground with almost the speed of light for the collision.

What is it about?

“We want to find out what went within the first nano seconds of the universe,” says physicist Robert Münzer of the University of Frankfurt, responsible for the Experiment. To the researchers, this so-called Quark-Gluon to generate Plasma.

Plasma is produced when nuclear matter is heated to high temperature. Quarks are the constituents of protons and neutrons, gluons are the elements that connect Quarks – from the English “glue” for glue.

The lead ions disintegrate in extreme heat in these components. “We need up to 200,000 Times the core temperature of the sun,” said Münzer. “In the state about the matter would have been shortly after the big Bang.” That was nearly 14 billion years ago.

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The Moment, in the lead-ions in Quarks and gluons decay, lasts for less than a sextillionth of a second. In the process, particles are produced, which fly off the accelerator. It is about 4000 per-lead nuclear collision, their tracks can be covered by Münzer and his colleagues with measuring instruments and analyzed. The researchers want to find out how the matter shortly after the big Bang originated.

Since the lead ions are being chased in the opposite direction, through the accelerator, and fluctuations in the duration of the alert. “I’m sleeping practically next to my phone,” he says. Problems with pressure, temperature or the high voltage must be corrected immediately, so that the particles can be measured. The more data, the more physicists learn about the beginnings of the universe.

From the 3. December the particle accelerator is switched off for two years. The plant is renewed and even more powerful. Physicists get a billion proton collisions per second. With newly developed materials and stronger magnets, it should be in a few years, five billion.

koe/dpa