Consider an ordinary ice cube sitting in a pressure cooker in our kitchen. We all know what happens if we turn on the stove. But what happens to an ice cube if we heat it up to trillions upon trillions of degrees?
If we heat the ice cube on the stove, first it melts and turns into water; that is, it undergoes a phase transition. Now let us heat the water until it boils. It then undergoes another phase transition and turns into steam. Now, continue to heat the steam to enormous temperatures. Eventually, the water molecules breakup. The energy of the molecules exceeds the binding energy of the molecules, which are ripped apart into elemental hydrogen and oxygen gas.
Now we continue to heat it past 3,000 °K, until the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen are ripped apart. The electrons are pulled from the nucleus, and now we have a plasma (an ionized gas), often called the fourth state of the matter (after gasses, liquids and solids). Although a plasma is not part of common experience, we can see it every time we look at the sun. In fact, plasma is the most common state of matter in the universe.
Now continue to heat the plasma on stove to 1 billion° K, until the nuclei of hydrogen and oxygen are ripped apart, and we have a "gas" of individual neutrons and protons, similar to interior of a neutron star.
If we heat the "gas" of nucleons even further to 10 trillion° K, these subatomic particles will turn into disassociated quarks. We will now have a gas of quarks and leptons (the electrons and neutrinos).
If we heat this gas to 1 quadrillion° K, the electromagnetic force and the weak force will become united. The symmetry SU(2) ×U(1) will emerge at this temperature. At 10 raised to power 28 ° K, the electroweak and strong forces become united, and the GUT symmetry [SU(5), O(10), or E(6)] appear.
Finally, at a fabulous 10 raised to power 32° K, gravity united with the GUT force, and all the symmetries of ten-dimensional superstring appear. We now have a gas of superstrings. At that point, so much energy will have gone in the pressure cooker that the geometry of the space-time may change. The space around our kitchen may very well become unstable; a rip may form in the fabric of space, and a wormhole may appear in the kitchen. At this point, it may be advisable to leave the kitchen.
# posted by masquerader @ 12:05 ::
