Why We Exist: Matter Wins Battle Over Antimatter
The seemingly inescapable fact that matter and antimatter particles
destroy each other on contact has long puzzled physicists wondering
how life, the universe or anything else can exist at all. But new
results from a particle accelerator experiment suggest that matter
does seem to win in the end.
The experiment has shown a small — but significant — 1 percent
difference between the amount of matter and antimatter produced, which
could hint at how our matter-dominated existence came about.
The current theory, known as the Standard Model of particle physics,
has predicted some violation of matter-antimatter symmetry, but not
enough to explain how our universe arose consisting mostly of matter
with barely a trace of antimatter.
But this latest experiment came up with an unbalanced ratio of matter
to antimatter that goes beyond the imbalance predicted by the Standard
Model. Specifically, physicists discovered a 1 percent difference
between pairs of muons and antimuons that arise from the decay of
particles known as B mesons.
The results, announced Tuesday, came from analyzing eight years worth
of data from the Tevatron collider at the Department of Energy's Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.
"Many of us felt goose bumps when we saw the result," said Stefan
Soldner-Rembold, a particle physicist at the University of Manchester
in the United Kingdom. "We knew we were seeing something beyond what
we have seen before and beyond what current theories can explain."
The Tevatron collider and its bigger cousin, the Large Hadron Collider
at CERN in Switzerland, can smash matter and antimatter particles
together to create energy, as well as new particles and antiparticles.
Otherwise, antiparticles only arise due to extreme events such as
nuclear reactions or cosmic rays from dying stars.
Measurements made by the DZero collaboration, a 500-member
international group, are still limited by the number of collisions
recorded so far. That means physicists will continue to collect data
and refine their analysis of the matter-antimatter struggle for
dominance.
Researchers came up with their latest finding by performing a
so-called blind data analysis, so that they would not bias their
analyses based on what they observed. They have submitted their
results to the journal Physical Review D.
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matter vs. antimatter: particle accelerator experiment says matter wins
Blog: What is Higgs boson – and will CERN scientists find the 'God particle'?
Blog: Dark matter revealed?
Matter, antimatter, and the origin of everything
The experiment has shown a small — but significant — 1 percent
difference between the amount of matter and antimatter produced, which
could hint at how our matter-dominated existence came about.
The current theory, known as the Standard Model of particle physics,
has predicted some violation of matter-antimatter symmetry, but not
enough to explain how our universe arose consisting mostly of matter
with barely a trace of antimatter.
But this latest experiment came up with an unbalanced ratio of matter
to antimatter that goes beyond the imbalance predicted by the Standard
Model. Specifically, physicists discovered a 1 percent difference
between pairs of muons and antimuons that arise from the decay of
particles known as B mesons.
The results, announced Tuesday, came from analyzing eight years worth
of data from the Tevatron collider at the Department of Energy's Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.
"Many of us felt goose bumps when we saw the result," said Stefan
Soldner-Rembold, a particle physicist at the University of Manchester
in the United Kingdom. "We knew we were seeing something beyond what
we have seen before and beyond what current theories can explain."
The Tevatron collider and its bigger cousin, the Large Hadron Collider
at CERN in Switzerland, can smash matter and antimatter particles
together to create energy, as well as new particles and antiparticles.
Otherwise, antiparticles only arise due to extreme events such as
nuclear reactions or cosmic rays from dying stars.
Measurements made by the DZero collaboration, a 500-member
international group, are still limited by the number of collisions
recorded so far. That means physicists will continue to collect data
and refine their analysis of the matter-antimatter struggle for
dominance.
Researchers came up with their latest finding by performing a
so-called blind data analysis, so that they would not bias their
analyses based on what they observed. They have submitted their
results to the journal Physical Review D.
Matter vs. antimatter: particle accelerator experiment says matter wins
New results from a particle accelerator experiment suggest that matter
does seem to win in the end.
Illustration of an atomic reaction, the concept of a matter -
antimatter collision. A matter-antimatter reaction is believed to be
100% efficient, with all mass converted into energy.
The seemingly inescapable fact that matter and antimatter particles
destroy each other on contact has long puzzled physicists wondering
how life, the universe or anything else can exist at all. But new
results from a particle accelerator experiment suggest that matter
does seem to win in the end.
The experiment has shown a small — but significant — 1 percent
difference between the amount of matter and antimatter produced, which
could hint at how our matter-dominated existence came about.
The current theory, known as the Standard Model of particle physics,
has predicted some violation of matter-antimatter symmetry, but not
enough to explain how our universe arose consisting mostly of matter
with barely a trace of antimatter.
But this latest experiment came up with an unbalanced ratio of matter
to antimatter that goes beyond the imbalance predicted by the Standard
Model. Specifically, physicists discovered a 1 percent difference
between pairs of muons and antimuons that arise from the decay of
particles known as B mesons.
The results, announced Tuesday, came from analyzing eight years worth
of data from the Tevatron collider at the Department of Energy's Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.
"Many of us felt goose bumps when we saw the result," said Stefan
Soldner-Rembold, a particle physicist at the University of Manchester
in the United Kingdom. "We knew we were seeing something beyond what
we have seen before and beyond what current theories can explain."
The Tevatron collider and its bigger cousin, the Large Hadron Collider
at CERN in Switzerland, can smash matter and antimatter particles
together to create energy, as well as new particles and antiparticles.
Otherwise, antiparticles only arise due to extreme events such as
nuclear reactions or cosmic rays from dying stars.
Measurements made by the DZero collaboration, a 500-member
international group, are still limited by the number of collisions
recorded so far. That means physicists will continue to collect data
and refine their analysis of the matter-antimatter struggle for
dominance.
Researchers came up with their latest finding by performing a
so-called blind data analysis, so that they would not bias their
analyses based on what they observed. They have submitted their
results to the journal Physical Review D.
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matter vs. antimatter: particle accelerator experiment says matter wins
Blog: What is Higgs boson – and will CERN scientists find the 'God particle'?
Blog: Dark matter revealed?
Matter, antimatter, and the origin of everything
The experiment has shown a small — but significant — 1 percent
difference between the amount of matter and antimatter produced, which
could hint at how our matter-dominated existence came about.
The current theory, known as the Standard Model of particle physics,
has predicted some violation of matter-antimatter symmetry, but not
enough to explain how our universe arose consisting mostly of matter
with barely a trace of antimatter.
But this latest experiment came up with an unbalanced ratio of matter
to antimatter that goes beyond the imbalance predicted by the Standard
Model. Specifically, physicists discovered a 1 percent difference
between pairs of muons and antimuons that arise from the decay of
particles known as B mesons.
The results, announced Tuesday, came from analyzing eight years worth
of data from the Tevatron collider at the Department of Energy's Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill.
"Many of us felt goose bumps when we saw the result," said Stefan
Soldner-Rembold, a particle physicist at the University of Manchester
in the United Kingdom. "We knew we were seeing something beyond what
we have seen before and beyond what current theories can explain."
The Tevatron collider and its bigger cousin, the Large Hadron Collider
at CERN in Switzerland, can smash matter and antimatter particles
together to create energy, as well as new particles and antiparticles.
Otherwise, antiparticles only arise due to extreme events such as
nuclear reactions or cosmic rays from dying stars.
Measurements made by the DZero collaboration, a 500-member
international group, are still limited by the number of collisions
recorded so far. That means physicists will continue to collect data
and refine their analysis of the matter-antimatter struggle for
dominance.
Researchers came up with their latest finding by performing a
so-called blind data analysis, so that they would not bias their
analyses based on what they observed. They have submitted their
results to the journal Physical Review D.
Matter vs. antimatter: particle accelerator experiment says matter wins
New results from a particle accelerator experiment suggest that matter
does seem to win in the end.
Illustration of an atomic reaction, the concept of a matter -
antimatter collision. A matter-antimatter reaction is believed to be
100% efficient, with all mass converted into energy.
--
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