The puzzling prevalence of matter over antimatter in the universe might be related to the bizarre space-time stretching caused by our galaxy's spin, a new study suggests.
Antimatter is a strange cousin to the stuff that makes up galaxies, stars and us. For every matter particle there is thought to exist an antimatter partner with the same mass but opposite charge. When matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate, converting their mass into energy in a powerful explosion.
Though the universe today is almost completely made of matter, scientists don't understand why. The Big Bang that created the cosmos 13.7 billion years ago should have produced equal parts matter and antimatter, which would have annihilated, leaving the universe barren of either. Luckily, it didn't (hence the Earth and the life it supports are here).
To what we owe our good fortune, physicists haven't much of an idea. But a new study that takes the spinning of our galaxy into account could point the way. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]
Physicist Mark Hadley of the University of Warwick in England calculated the effects of the Milky Way's spin on the space-time around it. According to the theory of general relativity, the speed and angular momentum of such a large spinning body twists the space and time around it in a process called frame-dragging.
Because of the mammoth mass of our galaxy, this twisting should have an impact on space-time that is more than a million times stronger than that of Earth's spin, Hadley found.
These changes to space and time — in particular a stretching of time called time dilation — could in turn affect how particles break down. Because of their different properties, matter and antimatter particles might react differently to the time dilation and decay at different rates because of it. [Video: Flying Space-time's Warps and Twists]
For some time, physicists have measured this asymmetry in decay rates between matter and antimatter, and called the phenomenon charge-parity violation (CP violation). But no one yet has a firm explanation for how the asymmetries came about.
"These [violations] have been measured but never explained," Hadley said in a statement. "This research suggests that the experimental results in our laboratories are a consequence of galactic rotation twisting our local space-time. If that is shown to be correct then nature would be fundamentally symmetric after all."
Hadley thinks that matter and antimatter aren't actually asymmetric at the root of things, but that their differing responses to the changes wrought by galactic rotation simply give this appearance. He says that if the overall big picture of all particles is taken into account, the variation of different levels of time stretching averages out and CP violation disappears.
"CP violation is seen as the key to explaining the matter asymmetry in the universe, but the measured CP violation is inadequate to explain the universe that we see today," Hadley wrote in a paper describing his findings published this month in the journal Europhysics Letters.
Instead of using CP violation to explain the prevalence of matter over antimatter in the universe, Hadley suggests that space-time warping may solve the mystery. Perhaps the spinning of massive structures formed early in the universe also stretched out time and space in a way that affected the overall distribution of matter and antimatter, he proposed.
To test his hypothesis, Hadley said researchers could investigate the findings of two experiments going on right now: the particle collisions produced inside the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, and the BaBar experiment at the SLAC particle physics laboratory at California's Stanford University, which studies CP violation in the decay of particles called B mesons.
"This radical prediction is testable with the data that has already been collected at CERN and BaBar by looking for results that are skewed in the direction that the galaxy rotates," Hadley said.
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Uwezekano wa kutofautisha kati ya vitu na vitu vingine katika ulimwengu unaoendelea unawezekana kwa sababu ya kuenea kwa nafasi-wakati kwa sababu ya mzunguko wa galaksi yetu, utafiti mpya unaonyesha. Antimatter ni binamu ya ajabu kwa mambo ambayo hufanya galaksi, nyota na sisi. Kwa kila chembe ya vitu kuna kufikiriwa kuwepo kwa mwenzake wa antimatter na wingi sawa lakini malipo kinyume. Vitu na vitu visivyo vya asili vinapokutana, vinaharibu, vikigeuza wingi wao kuwa nishati katika mlipuko wenye nguvu. Ingawa ulimwengu leo umefanyizwa karibu kabisa na vitu, wanasayansi hawaelewi ni kwa nini. Big Bang, ambayo iliunda ulimwengu wa miaka bilioni 13.7 iliyopita, inapaswa kuwa na sehemu sawa za vitu na antimatter, ambayo ingekuwa kuangamizwa, na kuacha ulimwengu barren ya yoyote. Kwa bahati nzuri, haikufanya hivyo (kwa hiyo Dunia na uhai unaotegemezwa nayo wako hapa). Kwa kile tunachokubali na bahati yetu nzuri, wanasayansi hawana wazo kubwa. Lakini utafiti mpya unaochunguza jinsi galaksi yetu inavyozunguka unaweza kuonyesha njia ya kufanya hivyo. "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika kitabu chake ""Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature,"" Mark Hadley, mwanafizikia wa Chuo Kikuu cha Warwick, Uingereza, alihesabu athari za mzunguko wa Mstari wa Maziwa kwenye nafasi-wakati unaomzunguka." Kulingana na nadharia ya jumla ya upendeleo, kasi na mwendo wa pembe ya mwili mkubwa unaozunguka hugeuza nafasi na wakati kuzunguka kwa mchakato unaoitwa kuingizwa kwa sura. Kwa sababu ya wingi mkubwa wa galaksi yetu, kugeuka-geuka kwa galaksi hii kunapaswa kuwa na athari kwa nafasi-wakati ambayo ni zaidi ya mara milioni moja kali kuliko ile ya mzunguko wa Dunia, Hadley alipata. Mabadiliko haya ya nafasi na wakati - hasa kunyoosha kwa wakati unaoitwa kupanuka kwa wakati - kwa upande wake yaweza kuathiri jinsi chembe zinavyovunjika. Kwa sababu ya mali zao tofauti, chembe za vitu na anti-vitu zinaweza kuitikia tofauti kwa upanuzi wa wakati na kuharibika kwa viwango tofauti kwa sababu yake. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""Uchanganyiko wa wakati na nafasi"" ni hali ya kawaida ambayo huathiri kiwango cha kuharibika kwa vitu na antimatter, na kwa hivyo huitwa ""kivunja cha usawa wa malipo.""" Lakini bado hakuna mtu aliye na ufafanuzi thabiti wa jinsi tofauti hizo zilivyotokea. "Hizi [uhalifu] zimepimwa lakini hazijawahi kuelezwa", Hadley alisema katika taarifa. "Utafiti huu unaonyesha kwamba matokeo ya majaribio katika maabara yetu ni matokeo ya mzunguko wa galaksi kugeuza nafasi-wakati wetu wa ndani. Ikiwa hilo litaonyeshwa kuwa sahihi basi asili ingekuwa sawa kabisa baada ya yote". Hadley anaamini kwamba nyenzo na antimatter si kweli asymmetric katika mizizi ya mambo, lakini kwamba majibu yao tofauti kwa mabadiliko woven na mzunguko galactic tu kutoa muonekano huu. "Kama picha kubwa ya jumla ya chembe zote inachukuliwa, tofauti ya viwango tofauti vya muda ""kupanua wastani"" na ukiukaji wa CP unapotea." "Uvunjaji wa CP unaonekana kama ufunguo wa kuelezea asymmetry ya mambo katika ulimwengu, lakini ukiukaji wa CP unaopimwa hautoshi kuelezea ulimwengu tunauona leo, ""Hadley aliandika katika karatasi inayoelezea matokeo yake yaliyochapishwa mwezi huu katika jarida la Europhysics." Badala ya kutumia ukiukaji wa CP kuelezea kuenea kwa nyenzo juu ya antimatter katika ulimwengu, Hadley anapendekeza kwamba warping nafasi-wakati inaweza kutatua fumbo. "Huenda kugeuka kwa miundo mikubwa iliyoundwa mapema katika ulimwengu pia kulipanua wakati na nafasi kwa njia ambayo iliathiri usambazaji wa jumla wa vitu na antimatter. """ "Hadley alisema kuwa watafiti wanaweza kuchunguza matokeo ya majaribio mawili yanayoendelea sasa hivi: ""mshuko wa chembe zinazozalishwa ndani ya kichocheo kikubwa zaidi cha kupasua atomu, ""Large Hadron Collider"" katika CERN huko Geneva, na majaribio ya ""Babar"" katika maabara ya fizikia ya chembe za SLAC katika Chuo Kikuu cha Stanford huko California, ambayo inachunguza ukiukaji wa CP katika uharibifu wa chembe zinazojulikana kama B-mesons." "Utabiri huu wa kimkakati unaweza kupimwa na data ambayo tayari imekusanywa katika CERN na BaBAR kwa kuangalia matokeo ambayo ni skewed katika mwelekeo kwamba galaxy inazunguka, ""Hadley alisema." Kujiandikisha kwa Live Science jarida la kila siku sasa Kupata ulimwengu wa uvumbuzi wa kuvutia zaidi alitoa moja kwa moja kwa sanduku lako la barua.