Related topics: cern · atoms · big bang · electrons · universe

In quest of the coldest possible antihydrogen

Currently, one of the major goals in ultracold science is to cool antihydrogen atoms to as close to absolute zero as possible. Ultracold antihydrogen would pave the way toward ultraprecise antimatter experiments that could ...

CP violation or new physics?

(Phys.org)—Over the past few years, multiple neutrino experiments have detected hints for leptonic charge parity (CP) violation—a finding that could help explain why the universe is made of matter and not antimatter. ...

Physicists find ways to increase antihydrogen production

(Phys.org)—There are many experiments that physicists would like to perform on antimatter, from studying its properties with spectroscopic measurements to testing how it interacts with gravity. But in order to perform these ...

Antimatter gravity could explain Universe's expansion

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1998, scientists discovered that the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Currently, the most widely accepted explanation for this observation is the presence of an unidentified dark energy, ...

Physicists Scrutinize Antimatter in Angels & Demons

(PhysOrg.com) -- Could the Vatican really be destroyed by antimatter stolen from a CERN laboratory? The scheme might work in the plot of Angels & Demons, the most recent Hollywood thriller based on a book by Dan Brown. However, ...

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Antimatter

In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles. For example, an antielectron (a positron, an electron with a positive charge) and an antiproton (a proton with a negative charge) could form an antihydrogen atom in the same way that an electron and a proton form a normal matter hydrogen atom. Furthermore, mixing matter and antimatter would lead to the annihilation of both in the same way that mixing antiparticles and particles does, thus giving rise to high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle–antiparticle pairs.

There is considerable speculation as to why the observable universe is apparently almost entirely matter, whether there exist other places that are almost entirely antimatter instead, and what might be possible if antimatter could be harnessed, but at this time the apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe is one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. The process by which this asymmetry between particles and antiparticles developed is called baryogenesis.

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