The Antiproton Decelerator is a machine that can capture antiparticles (created from particle collisions that occur at CERN’s Proton Synchrotron) and funnel them to other experiments, like BASE.Īntimatter is very tricky to observe and measure. “It is probably the first time that physicists get a more precise measurement for antimatter than for matter, which demonstrates the extraordinary progress accomplished at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator,” said physicist Christian Smorra in a CERN statement. In fact, the anti-proton measurement is even more precise than our measurements of the magnetic moment of a proton - a stunning feat considering how difficult anti-protons are to study. However, this latest measurement of the magnetic moment of anti-protons has revealed that the magnetic moments of both protons and anti-protons are exactly the same to a record-breaking level of precision. Should there be a difference, this might explain why matter is more dominant than antimatter. BASE is a complex piece of hardware that can precisely measure the magnetic moments of protons and anti-protons in an attempt to detect an extremely small difference between the two. So, in an attempt to measure one of the quantum states of particles, physicists of CERN’s Baryon–Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (BASE), located near Geneva, Switzerland, have made the most precise measurement of the anti-proton’s magnetic moment. But should one of these quantum numbers be very slightly different between matter and antimatter particles, it might explain why matter became the dominant “stuff” of the universe. a beautiful example of symmetry in the quantum world. Protons have anti-protons, electrons have positrons, neutrinos have anti-neutrinos etc. This physics conundrum focuses on the idea that all particles have their antimatter twin with the same quantum numbers, only the exact opposite. It is predicted that equal amounts of matter and antimatter were produced in the primordial universe (a basic prediction by the Standard Model of physics), but if that’s the case, all matter in the universe should have been annihilated when it came into contact with its antimatter counterpart - a Big Bang followed by a big disappointment. Evidently, matter won - because there are galaxies, stars, planets, you, me, hamsters, long walks on sandy beaches and beer - but how matter won is one of the biggest mysteries hanging over physics. The universe is the embodiment of an epic battle between matter and antimatter that occurred immediately after the Big Bang, 13.82 billion years ago. The universe shouldn’t exist, according to new ultra-precise measurements of anti-protons.īut the fact that I’m typing this article and you’re reading it, however, suggests that we are here, so something must be awry with our understanding of the physics the universe is governed by. Because it looks cool (NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team)