#cp-violation

#cp-violation

Here in our Universe, one great mystery is how, if matter and antimatter can only be created or destroyed in equal-and-opposite amounts, our Universe came to be dominated by normal (regular) matter, with barely a trace of antimatter present. Sure, dark energy (68%) and dark matter (27%) might make up the majority of the Universe, but the rest of it is made up of particles from the Standard Model: quarks, gluons, leptons, and photons. Of that 5%, nearly all of it (4.9%) is regular matter, made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, while the amount of antimatter - like antiprotons, antineutrons, or positrons - is negligible.

Matter and antimatter mirror each other in all respects but electric charge; physicists are excited by small differences in their behaviors. Recently, observations at the world's largest particle collider revealed a new class of antimatter particles breaking down differently than matter counterparts. This discovery contributes to the quest to understand why our universe consists of matter as opposed to an equal balance with antimatter, a situation suggested by early universe theories.