CERN physicists in Geneva have achieved a record measurement while searching for the origin of our existence. As a result, however, the hope of an explanation for why matter and antimatter did not annihilate each other in the Big Bang has been shattered for the time being, said Stefan Ulmer. The physicist is the founder of the Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (BASE) on CERNthat deals with the properties of antimatter.
“We did not find any difference between protons and antiprotons that could explain the existence of matter in the universe,” says Ulmer. When measuring, the physicists compared the masses of protons and antiprotons to 11 decimal places. Their results were published in the journal “Nature”.
Antimatter describes the antiparticles that exist for every building block in the world, the elementary particles. They have the opposite electrical charge. When particles and antiparticles meet, the pair annihilates each other.
“At its core, it is about the origin of our existence,” said Ulmer. “If we combine the Big Bang Theory and the Standard Model of Particle Physics, there is really no reason why the universe should come into being.” Because matter and antimatter would have to extinguish each other. Illustrated: if a proton and an antiproton were shaken in a box, nothing would be left. “That must have happened with the Big Bang – but it wasn’t, because we exist,” says Ulmer. “The question“ why do we exist? ” modern physics cannot answer yet. “
One of the theories put forward by the researchers is that there is an asymmetry between matter and antimatter. If protons were heavier than antiprotons, a few protons would be left over in a collision. The experiment on CERN but did not reveal any difference with unprecedented precision. “With a high degree of measurement precision, we ruled out that the difference between matter and antimatter is based on a difference in mass,” said Ulmer.
Individual particles were measured in a 25 centimeter long Penning trap, an electromagnetic container. There the physicists were able to record and compare the oscillations of the proton and antiproton.
According to Ulmer, the physicists have for the first time created an experiment that can investigate with the highest precision whether antimatter falls as quickly as matter due to gravity. The preliminary result: Antimatter reacts in the same way as matter. Here, too, one day even more precise measurements may lead to different results, said Ulmer.
