- 2065 -
Big Bang Antimatter mystery. - According to the Big Bang, the
universe began as a point the size of a grain of sand that was unimaginably
hot, unfathomably dense, and packed tight with matter and energy. The environment that produced the particles
that make up the universe should have created equal parts matter and
antimatter. Yet antimatter is
surprisingly rare.
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----------------------------- 2065
- Big Bang Antimatter mystery
-
- Thank your lucky stars you’re alive. It’s truly a miracle of nature.
This has nothing to do with spirituality or religion and everything to do with
science. Life itself may not be the only miracle. Although we haven’t found it
elsewhere yet, our galaxy alone is so replete with Earth-like planets that,
mathematically speaking, one of them must hold life, even if it is just the
microbial variety. Intelligent life may
be another matter.
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- What
scientists say as a result of their latest experiments is: the universe itself
is a miracle, as it should not exist at all. This is of course taken in
reference to the Big Bang theory. Though the prevailing one, it’s not the only
theory to explain how all and everything came into being. Still, in this view,
it all starts with the singularity.
-
- According to
the Big Bang, the universe began as a point the size of a grain of sand that
was unimaginably hot, unfathomably dense, and packed tight with matter and
energy. Then it exploded, sending its contents sailing out and eventually,
forming the universe as we know it.
-
- There are a
few problems with this theory. For one, there’s the increasing rate of
universal expansion, known as the Hubble Constant. According to the Big Bang,
things should be slowing down, or even contracting. Dark energy is the
conventional explanation for why the universe is still expanding at an
accelerating rate, even though we can't prove it exists.
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- There is
another problem. The environment that produced the particles
that make up the universe should have created equal parts matter and
antimatter. Yet antimatter is
surprisingly rare. Not only that, a 50-50 split would have seen each particle
uniting with its polar opposite, creating a burst of unimaginable energy and
leaving nothing behind, save a vast void of a universe. And yet, here we are.
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- One theory is
that matter and antimatter must in some way be radically different. But the
latest experiments do not find this is the case. According to the Standard
Model of physics, which is a manual for
every known particle in the universe and how it operates, states that each type
of atom has its polar opposite, its antiparticle, with the same mass, but with
an opposite electrical charge.
-
- Scientists
have tried to discern what fundamental difference such particles should have,
to validate the existence of the universe. They come up empty. Physicists
studied the magnetic properties of protons and antiprotons with uncanny
precision. The findings supported the Standard Model as the particles behaved just as it predicts.
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- All of science
observations find a complete symmetry between matter and antimatter, which is
why the Universe should not actually exist. An asymmetry must exist but scientists simply
do not understand where the difference is. What is the source of the symmetry
break? When matter and antimatter
particles collide, a burst of pure energy is the result. If these were
perfectly balanced in the early days of the universe, how could the universe
exist at all?
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- Protons and
antiprotons were the last holdout when it came to particles which could explain
the matter-antimatter imbalance. Scientists devised a manner to assess the
magnetism of a particle of antimatter that is 350 times more precise than the
previously method. The readout was incredible, to nine places! (-2.7928473441 nuclear magnetons). A proton
has the same level of magnetism, only it's positive. Although the study failed
to explain our universe’s extreme prejudice towards matter, it did give us a
far better understanding of an antiproton’s magnetism.
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- Antimatter
doesn’t last long. As such, it needs to be contained. Researchers used two
Penning traps, which are devices that retain antimatter particles using an
electrical and a magnetic field.
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- The
measurement of antiprotons was extremely difficult. They had been working on it for ten years.
The final breakthrough came with the revolutionary idea of performing the
measurement with two particles. This result is the culmination of many years of
continuous research and development, and the successful completion of one of
the most difficult measurements ever performed in a Penning trap instrument.
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- Up until now,
scientists have probed the differences between particles and their opposites by
comparing their electrical charge, magnetism, and mass. Next they plan to investigate them in terms of gravity,
to see if a discrepancy exists there. They also will be studying what asymmetry, if
any, exists between hydrogen and antihydrogen atoms with additional plans on further examining antiparticles
magnetically.
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- Perhaps new discoveries
will help unravel the secret behind the matter-antimatter imbalance. Time will tell, but, my time is up.
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------------------------- Sunday, May 6, 2018
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