• Question: Why is there more matter than antimatter?

    Asked by situ the fun guy to Jackie, Michele, Oliver, Vicky, Yelong on 14 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by broomie.
    • Photo: Michele Faucci Giannelli

      Michele Faucci Giannelli answered on 11 Mar 2015:

      Because a symmetry in the Universe is broken!
      For example if you consider decay mediated by the weak force, there is a small difference in producing matter over anti matter. The difference between the two that is observed in the Universe cannot actually be explained by this broken symmetry alone, so there must be another one that we do not know yet. Time to hunt!

    • Photo: Jaclyn Bell

      Jaclyn Bell answered on 14 Mar 2015:

      As Michele has said, there is a broken symmetry which wasn’t expected – if the universe was mathematically perfect and the amount of matter was completely symmetric to the amount of antimatter then I think it’s safe to say we would never have existed! We are not 100% sure why there is more matter than antimatter – this is why the LHC is so useful! The LHCb experiment and the matter/antimatter conundrum is explained here in a bit more detail —> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22277685

      Hope this helps! 🙂

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