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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."
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
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 27 2017, @06:03PM (1 child)
the amount of matter in the universe is much bigger than any reasonable value of epsilon.
that doesn't prove anything, of course, but it's the kind of situation where "the many world interpretation says that there is a universe where marilyn monroe will materialize 5 seconds from now in my room, out of thin air, so I'm cleaning up" is not an unreasonable thought.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Monday October 30 2017, @08:53AM
Define "reasonable".
Just because the universe is much bigger than us, doesn't mean that what was initially created by the big bang wasn't even bigger.
What if the universe is infinite? Annihilating 99.9999999999% of it in a matter-antimatter reaction would still leave us with an infinite universe.