The Primordial Existence of Plasma Before Atoms:

14-11-2024

Soumendra Nath Thakur 

Nucleosynthesis began just minutes after the Big Bang, when the universe was in an extremely hot and dense state. During this period, a quark-gluon plasma—a dense mixture of quarks and gluons—condensed to form protons and neutrons. As the universe expanded and cooled, these neutrons began to fuse with protons, creating the nuclei of deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen. This process laid the foundation for the formation of heavier elements in later stages of cosmic evolution

In cosmology, plasma indeed predated atoms in the early universe. Shortly after the Big Bang, the universe existed in an extremely hot, dense state known as the quark-gluon plasma. During this phase, matter consisted mainly of free quarks and gluons. As the universe expanded and cooled, quarks combined to form protons and neutrons, which in turn formed a dense plasma composed primarily of free electrons and nuclei. This plasma state persisted until about 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

At that time, in an event known as recombination, the universe cooled sufficiently for protons and electrons to combine, forming neutral hydrogen atoms. This allowed photons to travel freely, marking the transition from an opaque plasma-dominated universe to a transparent one, filled primarily with atoms. Hence, plasma was indeed the initial form of matter, preceding the stable formation of atoms in the observable universe.