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In a major breakthrough, researchers at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have successfully observed top quark pairs produced during lead-lead (Pb-Pb) collisions—marking the first time these heaviest elementary particles have been detected in such high-energy nuclear interactions. The discovery opens a new frontier for studying the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a primordial state of matter that existed microseconds after the Big Bang.The top quark, due to its enormous mass, decays almost instantaneously—within 10⁻²⁵ seconds. In contrast, the QGP lasts about 10⁻²³ seconds, allowing the decay products of the top quark to interact with the plasma. This interaction provides physicists with a unique tool to probe the evolving properties of the QGP in real time, acting as “time markers” of early-universe physics.This is the first observation of top quark production in heavy-ion collisions, validating theoretical predictions and demonstrating a powerful new method to explore the strong nuclear force described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD).Moving forward, scientists aim to study how the top quark's decay products are modified by the QGP. This research could dramatically enhance our understanding of matter under extreme conditions—bringing us closer to understanding the earliest moments of the universe.RESEARCH PAPER 📄ATLAS Collaboration, Observation of tt_bar production in the lepton+ jets and dilepton channels in p+Pb collision at sqrt (S_ NN) = 8.16