Why matter matters in the universeMarch 31, 2008A new physics discovery explores why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. The latest research findings, which involved significant contributions from physicists at the University of Melbourne, have been recently published in the prestigious journal Nature. The paper reveals that investigation into the process of B-meson decays has given insight into why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe.
"B-mesons are a new frontier of investigation for us and have proved very exciting in the formation of new thought in the field of particle physics." said Associate Professor Martin Sevior of the University's School of Physics who led the research. Sevior says that B-mesons contain heavy quarks that can only be created in very high energy particle accelerators. Their decays provide a powerful means of probing the exotic conditions that occurred in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang created the Universe. "Our universe is made up almost completely of matter. While we're entirely used to this idea, this does not agree with our ideas of how mass and energy interact. According to these theories there should not be enough mass to enable the formation of stars and hence life." "In our standard model of particle physics, matter and antimatter are almost identical. Accordingly as they mix in the early universe they annihilate one another leaving very little to form stars and galaxies. The model does not come close to explaining the difference between matter and antimatter we see in the nature. The imbalance is a trillion times bigger than the model predicts." Sevior says that this inconsistency between the model and the universe implies there is a new principle of physics that we haven't yet discovered. "Together with our colleagues in the Belle experiment, based at KEK in Japan, we have produced vast numbers of B mesons with the world's most intense particle collider." "We then looked at how the B-mesons decay as opposed to how the anti-B-mesons decay. What we find is that there are small differences in these processes. While most of our measurements confirm predictions of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, this new result appears to be in disagreement." "It is a very exciting discovery because our paper provides a hint as to what the new principle of physics is that led to our Universe being able to support life." The University of Melbourne | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Related Antimatter News Articles UC Santa Cruz physicists eagerly await launch of NASA space telescope they helped build When NASA launches its newest space observatory, physicists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, will be watching as the product of nearly 16 years of hard work blasts into orbit. 2,500 researchers, 1 supermachine, 1 new snapshot of the universe Deep in the bowels of the earth -100 metres below ground in Geneva, Switzerland - lies a supermachine of 27 km circumference called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that has been built to unlock the mysteries of the universe. Were the first stars dark? Perhaps the first stars in the newborn universe did not shine, but instead were invisible "dark stars" 400 to 200,000 times wider than the sun and powered by the annihilation of mysterious dark matter, a University of Utah study concludes Science with Integral -- 5 years on With eyes that peer into the most energetic phenomena in the universe, ESA's Integral has been setting records, discovering the unexpected and helping understanding the unknown over its first five years. Molecules of positronium observed in the laboratory for the first time Physicists at UC Riverside have created molecular positronium, an entirely new object in the laboratory. Briefly stable, each molecule is made up of a pair of electrons and a pair of their antiparticles, called positrons. Largest, brightest supernova ever seen may be long-sought pair-instability supernova An exploding star first observed last September is the largest and most luminous supernova ever seen, according to University of California, Berkeley, astronomers, and may be the first example of a type of massive exploding star rare today but probably common in the very early universe. Laser-trapping of rare element gets unexpected assist Argonne researchers have successfully laser-cooled and trapped atoms of radium - the first time this rare element has been captured in a magneto-optical trap - with an assist from an unexpected source. Where has all the antimatter gone? Scientists from the Universities of Liverpool and Glasgow have completed work on the inner heart of an experiment which seeks to find out what has happened to all the antimatter created at the start of the Universe. Nobel laureate Burton Richter to speak about future of particle physics Particle physics is about to transform our thinking once again. Experiments of the last 15 years suggest new forms of matter, new forces of nature and perhaps even new dimensions of space and time. Pinning down the new ideas will require more data from larger and more expensive machines-at a time when funding is more difficult than ever to secure. UCR-led research team detects 'top quark,' a basic constituent of matter A group of 50 international physicists, led by UC Riverside's Ann Heinson, has detected for the first time a subatomic particle, the top quark, produced without the simultaneous production of its antimatter partner - an extremely rare event. More Antimatter News Articles |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||