Why there are almost no Antimatter in the Universe?

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Antimatter entered the collective consciousness shortly after its discovery in the early 1930s. For "Star Trek" fans, antimatter is better known as the Enterprise's high-energy oxygen, the material that propels the starship faster than the speed of light. Space travel in this form is unlikely to become a reality. Antimatter's scientific possibilities, on the other hand, have long enticed science fiction enthusiasts and scientists with promises of incredible discoveries about the nature of distant galaxies and the origins of the universe.

Antimatter is a medium composed of subatomic particles of the same mass, electric charge, and magnetic moment as electrons, protons, and neutrons in ordinary matter, but with the electric charge and magnetic moment pointing in the opposite direction. Matter and antimatter cannot coexist at close range for more than a fraction of a second because they collide and annihilate each other, releasing massive amounts of energy in the form of gamma rays or elementary particles.

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The fact that we imagined antimatter is perhaps the most amazing aspect of it. In 1928, Paul Dirac, a British physicist, set out to solve a mystery: how to combine the principles of quantum theory with Einstein's special theory of relativity. Dirac was able to bring these disparate concepts together by using complex mathematical equations. He showed the operation of relatively small and breakneck particles, in this case, electrons moving at the speed of light. It was an impressive achievement in and of itself, but Dirac didn't stop there. Unexpectedly, he discovered that his equations would function not only for a negative charge electron but also for a positive charge electron.

According to Dirac, this phenomenon is the electron's "antiparticle," the subatomic equivalent to the "poor twin." He claims, every particle has a "antiparticle" with essentially identical properties, except for the electric charge, which is polar opposite. Antiprotons, antineutrons, and antielectrons (known as positrons) interact to form antiatoms and antimatter in the same way that protons, neutrons, and electrons combine to form atoms and matter. His discoveries led him to believe in the existence of an antimatter mirror universe.

Since Anderson's discovery, physicists have learned a lot more about antimatter. One of the most dramatic discoveries is the collision of antimatter and matter. Matter and antimatter attract each other at first, then destroy each other, just like lovers in a doomed relationship. Scientists may use devices to evaluate the "wreckage" of these fatal accidents and annihilations, which emit radiation. No experiments have yet found the antigalaxies or vast stretches of antimatter predicted by Dirac. However, scientists plan to send observatories into space to look for them just in case.

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However, the mystery that today's scientists are most perplexed by stems from the same source that has captured the public's imagination: the possibility that matter and antimatter annihilate when they collide. According to all science models, matter and antimatter existed in roughly equal proportions until the Big Bang fifteen billion years ago. Matter and antimatter materialized and then annihilated in an unfathomable cauldron of unfathomable temperatures, gradually vanishing back into energy, which is known as cosmic background radiation. According to natural rules, matter and antimatter must be created in pairs. However, within a millisecond of the Big Bang, matter outnumbered antiparticles by a factor of ten, resulting in a billion and one particles for every billion antiparticles. In the first second of the universe's life, all antimatters were destroyed, leaving only matter.

In this case, physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva produced the first antiatom, the antimatter counterpart of an ordinary atom. To accomplish this, antiprotons were shot into a xenon-gas jet. In the strong electric fields surrounding the xenon nuclei, some antiprotons formed pairs of electrons and positrons; a few of the positrons thus released then merged with the antiprotons to form antihydrogen.

Each antiatom lasted just about 40 billionths of a second before colliding with ordinary matter and destroying itself. CERN has since produced larger amounts of antihydrogen that can last 1,000 seconds. A comparison of the spectrum of the antihydrogen atom to the well-studied spectrum of hydrogen could reveal minute differences between matter and antimatter, which could have important implications for theories about how matter evolved in the early universe.

Today, antimatter can be found primarily in cosmic rays, which are high-energy extraterrestrial particles that generate new particles when they move through the Earth's atmosphere. It can also be used in accelerators like CERN, where physicists use high-energy collisions to produce particles and antiparticles. Physicists are searching for clues to this asymmetry phenomenon by observing the properties and behavior of engineered antiparticles, as well as the antimatter produced when they combine.

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There is no evidence of large amounts of antimatter in the universe, although positrons are easily produced when cosmic rays collide. There are no indications that the Milky Way Galaxy is entirely composed of matter and there are no regions where matter and antimatter collide and annihilate, resulting in the emission of gamma rays. The implication that matter completely dominates antimatter in the universe seems to contradict Dirac's theory, which shows that particles and antiparticles are often produced in equal numbers from material, as shown by observation. The energetic conditions of the early universe may have produced an equal number of particles and antiparticles; however, the simultaneous extinction of particle-antiparticle pairs would have left nothing but energy. In today's universe, photons (energy) outnumber protons (matter) by a factor of one billion.

Physicists conduct two types of extremely complicated experiments to investigate matter and antimatter to discover the facts. Antiparticles and antimatter are produced in particle accelerators and precisely measured; these measurements are then compared to what we know about their matter counterparts to discern any detectable antiparticles or antimatter. Whatever the outcomes of such experiments, physicists will continue to push the limits of human imagination to fill this slight void in their magnificent theory. While theoretical science has been able to explain with extreme precision a large portion of what we believe about natural laws, observations have shown that asymmetry may not fit into the background.

Antimatter has the power to kill humanity and everything we care for. However, do not be alarmed! There is very little antimatter in the world. Furthermore, antimatter could be advantageous. Energy is emitted when antimatter and matter collide and absorb each other. In a PET scanner, anti-electrons are created, and their annihilation in the body allows doctors to create complicated images. In the future, scientists hope to use the energy produced by antimatter/matter interactions to power spacecraft.


Note: The cover image is created by the author in Canva.

References

  1. CERN: discovery sheds light on the great mystery of why the universe has less ‘antimatter’ than matter
  2. First atoms of antimatter produced at CERN
  3. Antimatter: What? And where is it?
  4. What and Where is Antimatter?
  5. The Problem of Big Bang Matter vs. AntiMatter Symmetry
  6. A Matter-Antimatter Universe?
  7. What Is Antimatter, and Where Has It All Gone?
  8. There's Almost No Antimatter In The Universe, And No One Knows Why
  9. No, Physicists Still Don’t Know Why Matter (And Not Antimatter) Dominates Our Universe
  10. The Universe's Dark Secret: Where Did All the Antimatter Go?


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6 comments
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This is stupid. Why is there no anti matter? That's a double redundant. why is there no anti water, or anti air, or anti mangoes. There can't be an anti of a thing unless the thing was already a double negative which it can't be. Seriously dude is that what science has become? Downvoted and reported.

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I don't know whether or not antimatter should exist or not since there is no actual evidence of them. When it is proved I will reconsider but I just pass it as possible thing instead of worrying about the possible consequences of people using it.

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Antimatter existence is still debatable, and I agree that we have all doubts to it. The concept really intriguing and the possible consequence of having it.

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Perhaps he created the concept of antimatter to explain the vacuum of the universe. I think it's just to explain why most of the universe is in a vacuum.

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