October 11 2024
By Hyun Cho
Antimatter has something to do with the knowledge of the beginning of the universe because it was produced in equal quantity to matter during the Big Bang. Matter and antimatter are completely identical but opposite in charge; the mystery, however, is that antimatter disappears somewhere, and the whole universe is made only of matter. The fascination with this puzzle began when Paul Dirac predicted the existence of antimatter in 1931 and Karl Anderson discovered the positron a year later. Starting from the discovery of antimatter itself, breakthrough discoveries included the finding of the heaviest anti-matter particles, which helped scientists to go further in understanding and dig deeper into the approach of this elusive matter.
The heaviest antimatter particle, antihypertriton4, was detected by the researchers of Brookhaven National Laboratory in August 2023 when the collision of gold nuclei was at high speed. The finding has helped to simulate the condition of the universe during its early days and provided insight into the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. Recent experiments have shown that there is not much difference in the properties of matter and antimatter, but studies have shown that they continue to explore why the universe is mostly made of matter. This consequently opens a new door toward our understanding of the universe and lifts expectations for the future.