New Calculation Refines Comparison of Matter With Antimatter

Brookhaven National Laboratory / Phys.org / Sept. 16, 2020

“The need for a difference between matter and antimatter is built into the modern theory of the cosmos,” said Norman Christ of Columbia University.

“Our current understanding is that the present universe was created with nearly equal amounts of matter and antimatter. Except for the tiny effects being studied here, matter and antimatter should be identical in every way, beyond conventional choices such as assigning negative charge to one particle and positive charge to its anti-particle. Some difference in how these two types of particles operate must have tipped the balance to favor matter over antimatter,” he said.

“Any differences in matter and antimatter that have been observed to date are far too weak to explain the predominance of matter found in our current universe,” he continued.

. . . although no one specifically asked him to . . .

“Finding a significant discrepancy between an experimental observation and predictions based on the Standard Model would potentially point the way to new mechanisms of particle interactions that lie beyond our current understanding—and which we hope to find to help to explain this imbalance.”