Heavy-ion physics at CERN

Both in the early universe, at time about one microsecond, and (perhaps) in the interior of neutron stars the energy density is so high that hadrons (protons, neutrons, pions ...) cannot exist : they melt down into a colour conducting "plasma" of quarks and gluons, the most primordial form of what we call matter. At CERN we create "mini-bangs" of matter by colliding heavy nuclei head-on at 33 TeV energy. it appears that such deconfined matter is indeed recreated in these experiments.