{"id":544116,"date":"2023-10-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nspirement.com\/?p=544116"},"modified":"2023-10-05T05:47:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T09:47:57","slug":"antimatter-we-cracked-how-gravity-affects-it-heres-what-it-means-for-our-understanding-of-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nspirement.com\/2023\/10\/05\/antimatter-we-cracked-how-gravity-affects-it-heres-what-it-means-for-our-understanding-of-the-universe.html","title":{"rendered":"How Gravity Affects Antimatter and What It Means for Understanding the\u00a0Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
A substance called antimatter is at the heart of one of the greatest mysteries of the universe. We know that every particle has an antimatter companion that is virtually identical to itself but with the opposite charge. When a particle and its antiparticle meet, they annihilate each other \u2014 disappearing in a burst of light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our current understanding of physics predicts that equal quantities of matter and antimatter should have been created during the formation of the universe. But this doesn\u2019t seem to have happened, as it would have resulted in all particles annihilating right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, there\u2019s plenty of matter around us, yet very little antimatter<\/a> \u2014 even deep in space. This enigma has led to a grand search<\/a> to find flaws in the theory or otherwise explain the missing antimatter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One such approach has focused on gravity. Perhaps this substance behaves differently under gravity, being pulled in the opposite direction to matter. If so, we might simply be in a part of the universe from which it is impossible to observe the antimatter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our new study, published in Nature<\/em><\/a>, reveals how this substance behaves under the influence of gravity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other approaches to the question of why we observe more matter than antimatter span numerous sub-fields in physics. These range from astrophysics<\/a> \u2014 aiming to observe and predict the behavior of antimatter in the cosmos with experiments<\/a> \u2014 to high energy particle physics, investigating the processes and fundamental particles that form antimatter<\/a> and govern their lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n