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LHC Research May Help Explain the Universe's Matter/Antimatter Imbalance

Posted by Soulskill on from the level-up-your-sigma dept.

suraj.sun sends this excerpt from the BBC: "Particles called D-mesons seem to decay slightly differently from their antiparticles, LHCb physicist Matthew Charles told the HCP 2011 meeting on Monday. The result may help explain why we see so much more matter than antimatter. The team stresses that further analysis will be needed to shore up the result. At the moment, they are claiming a statistical certainty of '3.5 sigma' — suggesting that there is less than a 0.05% chance that the result they see is down to chance. The team has nearly double the amount of data that they have analyzed so far, so time will tell whether the result reaches the 'five-sigma' level that qualifies it for a formal discovery."

3 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Observable universe by Lord+Lode · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What we see is just the observable universe. What if all this missing antimatter happens to be in a non-observable part? You'll never be able to see that! Unless those faster than light particles end the theory of observable universe of course.

    1. Re:Observable universe by Surt · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The unobservable universe is the infinite portion beyond the light speed horizon.
      If you really want to be depressed, think about future civilizations in our galaxy for whom all other galaxies will have retreated beyond the light speed horizon. They will have a much harder time figuring out how the universe works.

      Now realize that we may already be one of those future civilizations from the perspective of the lucky folks who got to see the universe early on.

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    2. Re:Observable universe by izomiac · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As I understand it, the theory is that anything galaxy-sized or smaller must be almost completely composed of either matter or antimatter since otherwise it'd destroy itself. But, if you had antimatter galaxies then you'd expect to see gamma particles created when they interacted with matter galaxies.

      That hasn't been observed, so the prevailing theory is that the whole universe is almost exclusively comprised of matter, thus there must be some preference in the laws of physics for matter. Personally, I suspect we'll discover an alternate explanation for the missing gamma rays that doesn't require an asymmetry in physics, such as your idea, but I'm certainly not an expert on the topic ("neophyte" would be generous).