Antimatter

[Cosmicus]

Hi, at the beginning of time there was roughly equal amounts of matter and antimatter, however the matter seems to have won it over the antimatter.

why is this , why was there either more matter than antimatter , or if equal what property would have the matter win over the antimatter ?

thanks 

[beecee]

7 minutes ago, Cosmicus said:

Hi, at the beginning of time there was roughly equal amounts of matter and antimatter, however the matter seems to have won it over the antimatter.

why is this , why was there either more matter than antimatter , or if equal what property would have the matter win over the antimatter ?

thanks 

We do not as yet, have a firm handle as to why, but here is a promising article from CERN

https://theconversation.com/cern-discovery-sheds-light-on-the-great-mystery-of-why-the-universe-has-less-antimatter-than-matter-147226#:~:text=All the particles that make,in a flash of energy.

CERN: discovery sheds light on the great mystery of why the universe has less ‘antimatter’ than matter:

 

[Cosmicus]

Thanks! Since the decay seems to vary in random patterns in this experience , could it be that it was just a 50 50 chance. AMC that chance determined the outcome.

[beecee]

2 hours ago, Cosmicus said:

Thanks! Since the decay seems to vary in random patterns in this experience , could it be that it was just a 50 50 chance. AMC that chance determined the outcome.

Could be. The thing to keep in mind is that if anti matter had survived over normal matter, we would be calling anti matter, matter, and matter, anti matter. 😉

[joigus]

5 hours ago, beecee said:

Could be. The thing to keep in mind is that if anti matter had survived over normal matter, we would be calling anti matter, matter, and matter, anti matter. 😉

Good point. What we call 'matter' and what 'antimatter' is a matter of convention.  Some people get confused about this.

The question all boils down to a possible baryon-number non-conservation. That's the present standing issue.

Sakharov's conditions for there being a cosmological unbalance between matter and antimatter are:

1) Time/parity/charge asymmetry

2) Universe out of equilibrium at a very early stage

3) baryon number non-conservation (implies lepton number non-conservation).

We are certain about 1), pretty sure about 2), and do not completely understand 3) or whether it's actually true.

I have to read more carefully on proposals to go beyond the standard model, which is what @beecee has linked to, I think. But I don't think that changes point 3) in an essential way. Baryon number is the number of protons or neutrons minus the number of their antimatter counterparts. Quarks having 1/3 of a proton's baryon number, and their antiquarks, -1/3. Leptons are electrons and neutrinos. The rest are neither baryons, nor leptons (photons, gluons, etc, the interaction particles themselves).

The standard picture so far is that protons (and other baryons) should disappear at an extremely low rate (larger than the age of the universe).

We've been trying to detect proton decay for decades --see, eg, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Kamiokande. So far, nothing has happened.

Edited August 13, 2021 by joigus
grammatical correction

[SergUpstart]

Within the multiverse, this problem could be explained by the fact that universes are born in pairs. But it is impossible to verify this, we are not able to observe the Outside World.

[Cosmicus]

7 hours ago, beecee said:

Could be. The thing to keep in mind is that if anti matter had survived over normal matter, we would be calling anti matter, matter, and matter, anti matter. 😉

Would we be able to observe the world of antimatter ? Would that not be a hostile environment for Life?i was under the impressing that it was more unstable,more gamma rays etc.

 

[joigus]

23 minutes ago, Cosmicus said:

Would we be able to observe the world of antimatter ? Would that not be a hostile environment for Life?i was under the impressing that it was more unstable,more gamma rays etc.

 

If we were to be dropped in a part of the universe made of anti-matter, we and the unfortunate piece of anti-matter that faced us would be mutually annihilated into gamma rays, as this famous poem conjures up:

Quote

Perils of Modern Living,

by Harold P. Furth

Well up above the tropostrata
There is a region stark and stellar
Where, on a streak of anti-matter
Lived Dr. Edward Anti-Teller.

Remote from Fusion's origin,
He lived unguessed and unawares
With all his antikith and kin,
And kept macassars on his chairs.

One morning, idling by the sea,
He spied a tin of monstrous girth
That bore three letters: A. E. C.
Out stepped a visitor from Earth.

Then, shouting gladly o'er the sands,
Met two who in their alien ways
Were like as lentils. Their right hands
Clasped, and the rest was gamma rays.

 

If you (and the universe around you) were made of anti-matter, it remains to be seen whether you could have a 'normal' biology, as it is known that amino-acids making up our proteins are of the L-variety, and their mirror images never occur in biology, at least on this earth. There may be a fundamental reason why that's so. Maybe a biology expert can tell us more.

But suppose all the biological functions were to be unchanged by the shift from their matter versions to their anti-matter ones, and this anti-you were dropped in an anti-matter galaxy. Then I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to survive. But you would have to be formed from anti-matter.