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posted by martyb on Thursday October 26 2017, @01:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-hummingbirds-should-not-fly dept.

The apparent symmetry between matter and antimatter is puzzling scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN):

One of the great mysteries of modern physics is why antimatter did not destroy the universe at the beginning of time.

To explain it, physicists suppose there must be some difference between matter and antimatter – apart from electric charge. Whatever that difference is, it's not in their magnetism, it seems.

Physicists at CERN in Switzerland have made the most precise measurement ever of the magnetic moment of an anti-proton – a number that measures how a particle reacts to magnetic force – and found it to be exactly the same as that of the proton but with opposite sign. The work is described in Nature [open, DOI: 10.1038/nature24048] [DX].

"All of our observations find a complete symmetry between matter and antimatter, which is why the universe should not actually exist," says Christian Smorra, a physicist at CERN's Baryon–Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (BASE) collaboration. "An asymmetry must exist here somewhere but we simply do not understand where the difference is."

CP violation.

Previously: Evidence Mounts that Neutrinos are the Key to the Universe's Existence
Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry Confirmed in Baryons
LHCb Observes an Exceptionally Large Group of Particles
Possible Explanation for the Dominance of Matter Over Antimatter in the Universe


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by pkrasimirov on Thursday October 26 2017, @02:16PM (3 children)

    by pkrasimirov (3358) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 26 2017, @02:16PM (#587813)

    Don't be materialsist, the phrase "anti-matter" is offensive. Why would you think your matter is pro- and the other is anti-? Use the term Alternative matter. Or just Matter because it is all the same, just with minor differences. Which makes it unique and precious.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @03:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @03:05PM (#587834)

    Or may be neo-matter? We all know neo-anything are invented to create chaos, run by the system to control dissent. Like the government-funded and government-run and double-agent-led neo-nazis?

  • (Score: 2) by bootsy on Thursday October 26 2017, @04:43PM

    by bootsy (3440) on Thursday October 26 2017, @04:43PM (#587873)

    Grow a pair snowflake :)

    Personally I am matter fluid. I haven't decided which I am yet.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by inertnet on Thursday October 26 2017, @08:13PM

    by inertnet (4071) on Thursday October 26 2017, @08:13PM (#587980) Journal

    All Matter Lives.