While most of nature’s laws treat particles and antiparticles equally, when it comes to stars and planets there’s an exception as these are made of particles or matter, not antiparticles or antimatter. This has always puzzled scientists. But new research carried out by a team of UCLA physicists offers a solution to the mystery of the origin of the Universe’s matter.
The team, led by professor physics and astronomy at UCLA, Alexander Kusenko, have proposed that the matter-antimatter asymmetry may be related to the Higgs boson particle. More specifically they have suggested that it may be due to the motion of the Higgs field and how it could have made particles and antiparticles masses’ unequal temporarily causing an excess of matter of antimatter particles. When these two meet (a particle and an antiparticle) two photons or another pair of particles are emitted and they disappear.
Following the Big Bang particles and antiparticles had pretty equal levels with only a minute amount of asymmetry – one particle per 10 billion. When the Universe cooled particles and antiparticles wiped each other out in equal amounts, leaving only a small number of particles, which we call stars and planets. One of the greatest scientific achievements of recent decades was the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson particle. After measuring the particle’s mass, physicists confirmed that it was consistent with the possibility that the Higgs filed was in fact much larger than its value today in the moments following the Big Bang.
Related Links;
- Physicists offer a solution to the puzzle of the origin of matter in the universe / UCLA
- World’s largest particle collider may unlock secrets of universe / UCLA
- Relaxing Higgs Could Explain Absence of Antimatter / Physics
- Postinflationary Higgs Relaxation and the Origin of Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry / Physical Review
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