Why there is more matter than antimatter?

4th March 2013


The latest research findings, which involved significant contributions from physicists at the University of Melbourne, have been recently published in the prestigious journal Nature.

The paper reveals that investigation into the process of B-meson decays has given insight into why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe.

"B-mesons are a new frontier of investigation for us and have proved very exciting in the formation of new thought in the field of particle physics." said Associate Professor Martin Sevior of the University's School of Physics who led the research.

Sevior says that B-mesons contain heavy quarks that can only be created in very high energy particle accelerators. Their decays provide a powerful means of probing the exotic conditions that occurred in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang created the Universe.

"Our universe is made up almost completely of matter. While we're entirely used to this idea, this does not agree with our ideas of how mass and energy interact. According to these theories there should not be enough mass to enable the formation of stars and hence life."


Sevior says that this inconsistency between the model and the universe implies there is a new principle of physics that we haven't yet discovered.

"Together with our colleagues in the Belle experiment, based at KEK in Japan, we have produced vast numbers of B mesons with the world's most intense particle collider."






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