Large Hadron Collider - can it re-create the early universe?

[Saddlestone]

One of the aims of the Large Hadron Collider is that it may be able to re-create conditions in the early universe and therefore produce the quark-gluon plasma that appeared microseconds after the universe's birth.

However a fundamental difference between the universe now (in which the experiment is being conducted) and the early universe is the size of space-time itself. Is it not the case that the vast size of current space-time will affect the conditions acting on any plasma created and invalidate any experiments intended to draw conclusions about the early universe, when space-time was very small?

 

[kcajrenreb]

I believe that the QGP behaves the same, no matter the how far the universe has expanded.

 

[Bill_K]

can it re-create the early universe?

Hopefully not. For as Stephen Wright would say, "Where would we put it?"
The CERN experimenters do not think of it that way, of course - they are studying the quark-gluon plasma. And every bit as much as the highly publicized search for the Higgs boson, they are exploring unknown territory.

 

[Saddlestone]

I didn't think they were trying to re-create the universe, simply the conditions that applied at the time.

The question is still valid - doesn't the existence and influence of the current universe negate any attempt to create the original universe's starting conditions?