By The Financial District
Mar 62 min
While magnetars are the undisputed masters of magnetism in the classical world, the quantum magnetic fields found in quark-gluon plasma are 10,000 times stronger.
A new study conducted by Brookhaven National Laboratory as part of the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) experiment recorded a “super strong” magnetic field within a quark-gluon plasma formed after an off-center collision of heavy atomic nuclei. I Photo: Brookhaven National Laboratory Flickr
Using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, physicists recorded an incredibly strong (and incredibly brief) magnetic field resulting from off-center heavy nuclei collisions, Darren Orf reported for Popular Mechanics.
Magnetars, for example, can generate magnetic fields in excess of 100 trillion gauss—as a point of comparison, the magnet on your fridge produces a field of only 100 gauss or so.
This highly intense magnetism can distort the star’s shape to such a degree that the star pulses gravitational waves out into the universe.
Sounds intense, right? Well, this spacetime-altering magnetic field doesn’t even come close to the power of fields generated in the quantum world.
Using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Upton, New York, a new study conducted by Brookhaven National Laboratory as part of the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) experiment recorded a “super strong” magnetic field within a quark-gluon plasma formed after an off-center collision of heavy atomic nuclei.
According to the results published in the journal Physical Review X last week, this magnetic field was some 10,000 times stronger than a magnetar.
“Those fast-moving positive charges should generate a very strong magnetic field, predicted to be 10^18 gauss,” co-author Gang Wang, a STAR physicist from the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a press statement.
“This is probably the strongest magnetic field in our universe.”