August 7, 2004
WHAT'S YOUR PREFERENCE?:
Accelerator Findings Help Show Why There's Matter (Eric D. Tytell, August 7, 2004, LA Times)
Researchers at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center have observed a crucial difference between the behavior of matter and antimatter, providing insight into one of the key questions of physics: why there is matter in the universe.Theoreticians agree that the Big Bang that created our universe produced equal amounts of matter and its exotic counterpart, antimatter. But the two are converted back into energy in a massive explosion when they come into contact.
For matter to have survived the universe's fiery beginning, it must have been preferentially retained while antimatter disintegrated.
You have to love it when the limitations of language reveal more than science ever can. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 7, 2004 9:28 AM
Yes, in this case a rare correct use of passive voice. It means there is knowledge of what, but absolutely none as to why.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at August 7, 2004 1:52 PM"...providing insight into one of the key questions of physics: why there is matter in the universe."
This seems to be an overly optimistic assessment of the reported result. The equations of quantum mechanics predict CP violations in weak interactions involving leptons and mesons.
1. The experiment observed that 0.0008% of B meson and anti-meson pairs decayed by modes producing 13% more matter than anti-matter. This is extremely rare, and would seem to imply that the vast majority of the universe should consist of energy (i.e., photons) rather than matter.
2. This does not account for the true mass of the universe, the hadrons (i.e., protons, neutrons, etc.), which cannot be produced by this mechanism.
3. Unfortunately, the big bang mythology predicts that the hadrons appear first as a result of the strong force decoupling, followed by the appearance of the leptons and mesons when the weak force decouples. The timeline is backwards.
In short, this would be sufficient to explain a universe of a relatively few leptons and mesons in a sea of energy. Fortunately, this does not describe the universe we inhabit.
Posted by: jd watson at August 7, 2004 5:47 PM