This visualization starts with particles from a nuclear collision that are compressed and heated up to create a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP), which looks like a “blob” in the video. Once the QGP expands and cools down, it decays again into particles that can be measured by the research team’s experiments. This is a so-called “hybrid’ model, that basically uses the Ultrarelativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics model (UrQMD), a microscopic model used to simulate (ultra)relativistic heavy ion collisons, to model very early and late reaction stages in the process. The model has been combined with a relativistic fluid dynamics calculation to depict the formation and evolution of a Quark-Gluon-Plasma.

Duke University physicist Steffen A. Bass uses big chunks of computing time to study the behavior of some of the universe’s most fundamental particles—quarks and gluons, which existed in an unbound state up until about a micro-second after the Big Bang. Read more

RENCI’s Clark Jeffries and Dr. Diana Perkins of the UNC School of Medicine’s psychiatry department talk about their research that examines the genetic basis of schizophrenia in a Radio In Vivo interview.