What prevents regular matter and antimatter in outer space from coming into contact and exploding?

in #steemstem6 years ago

Apart from dark matter, black holes, dark energy and the lost baryons of the Universe, one of the most captivating mysteries in current physics is centered around matter and antimatter. These were created in equal symmetry during the origin of the Universe, 14 billion years ago. It is a philosophical as well as a physical issue.


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If it had happened that antimatter won, there would be no element of our physical Universe (not even us), since both would have destroyed each other in whirlwinds of pure radiation, abandoning energy and a brilliant Universe, but without any characteristic trace. So, what prevents regular matter and antimatter in outer space from coming into contact and exploding or being destroyed?

There is an apparent absence of antimatter in our galaxy, and it is an observation of extraordinary interest today for many. The hypothesis of Big Bang for the origin of the Universe predicts that, immediately after the big initial explosion, the Universe was symmetric in matter and antimatter. But to understand a little more about the matter, let's see some basic concepts on the subject:

The matter

Matter of the universe is everything that has mass. All matter is composed of particles. They are like tiny pieces that come together to create everything we see.

Although they also form another type of matter that we can not perceive, dark matter. In fact, the largest fragment of matter that makes up the Universe is dark matter.

Everything that has mass, however small, emits gravity. Even ourselves. In the Cosmos, matter is attracted by that gravity. Gravity holds the material together. Even so, most of the matter is not concentrated in the galaxies, but in the immense intergalactic spaces.

Dark matter

In the Universe there is another type of matter, impossible to see: dark or invisible matter. It is estimated that 80% or about a quarter of the universe is dark matter.

Dark matter does not emit or reflect any kind of light. It does not give off any type of radiation, neither visible nor invisible. That's why we cannot see it. And then, how do we know that it exists? Well, this is because it emits gravity and this if we can detect it.

Its composition still remains a mystery; however, it is believed that it could be formed by neutrinos and other still unknown particles.


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Antimatter

Antimatter refers to a matter composed of antiatomes. That is, if the atoms are composed of electrons, protons and neutrons; the antiatomes are composed of antielectrons, antiprotons and the inexplicable antineutron. The particles and antiparticles are the same, but have opposite electrical charges. This feature, although it may seem minimal, is paramount.

The slightest contact of ours, with another identical being but constituted by antiprotons and positrons, would be fatal. If we shook his hand we would disintegrate causing a huge explosion capable of destroying a big city. Fortunately, the amount of antimatter that exists in the universe is negligible compared to the present amount of matter, at least in our immediate environment.

Therefore, perhaps the fact that there is no free antimatter in significant amounts in space is what makes regular matter and antimatter in outer space come into contact and explode.

The question would be why if in the primitive Universe there was initially equal amount of matter that of antimatter there was a small asymmetry in favor of the matter that made it survive only. There are various theories about it, but they are not simple. In fact, this problem is one of the most researched in physics, known as the violation of parity. It is known that photons above a certain energy, in certain circumstances, become mass (E = mc2), specifically in an electron and a positron, identical particles in everything except in their charge, and that they would emit a photon (or a sum of photons) of energy equivalent to the sum of the masses of an electron and a positron.


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Had this pattern been followed, one would expect that, after the Big Bang, the energy would be transformed into matter and antimatter and then rejoined to maintain the energy. However, for some reason, at that time there was a little more matter than antimatter, and that extra matter is what forms the current universe.

I believe that they are the same there, there is not an asymmetry between them, apart from that I think that this asymmetry is corrected in movement, in what is matter. I do not think that matter can be separated from antimatter, in matter no, the symmetry of them would lead us to photons, and to the symmetry of matter and antimatter, we would not have a balance point between asymmetries, it would be a point of equilibrium , there would be no internal electromagnetism, nor external to the point of equilibrium, there would be an apparently mobile medium.

If the asymmetry of what is considered matter and antimatter is broken, we would have a unique number, outside the relation with nearby, surrounding asymmetric systems, the limits, the borders disappear, the relationship disappears, until finding a new appreciable limit, something like compress a dock and return it for all the same, nor recognize other springs, except in a specific part, or recognize other unified springs, in the same state as it, are the same, would not distinguish them.

In any case, in their asymmetrical form, these springs believe that they can expand outwardly, very, very much, until they reach the top of others. Otherwise, by losing the asymmetric character, we would have a straight line

987654321
123456789

This would be an asymmetry

A serious symmetry

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555555555

Because 123456789 alone can not exist.

But that straight line would go in two directions, I do not imagine a photon in two senses, although to know, well imagine yes.

This is not mathematical, it is a mode of representation.

Where has the presence of antimatter been detected?

There seem to be "small" accumulations of antimatter within the observable universe. The European Space Observatory has confirmed the existence of a small accumulation of antimatter near the center of our galaxy. By the emission of gamma radiation, it could be a possible cloud of antimatter. Also, researchers from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, has detected positrons in solar flares.

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I have a couple of comments, if you allow me to do so.

If it had happened that antimatter won, there would be no element of our physical Universe (not even us), since both would have destroyed each other in whirlwinds of pure radiation, abandoning energy and a brilliant Universe, but without any characteristic trace.

This is not fully true. What you describe is what occurs if both are there in the same amount.

Dark matter does not emit or reflect any kind of light. It does not give off any type of radiation, neither visible nor invisible. That's why we cannot see it. And then, how do we know that it exists? Well, this is because it emits gravity and this if we can detect it.

We can detect dark matter. There are experiments targeting its directs detection through its interaction with usual matter, and other experiments aiming at indirect dark matter detection through the products of its annihilation elsewhere in the universe. Moreover, we are also trying to produce dark matter at colliders. The reason is that dark matter can be weakly interacting (other options exist but let's avoid them at the moment). It thus interacts much strongly than trough gravity with matter.

I believe that they are the same there, there is not an asymmetry between them, apart from that I think that this asymmetry is corrected in movement, in what is matter. I do not think that matter can be separated from antimatter, in matter no, the symmetry of them would lead us to photons, and to the symmetry of matter and antimatter, we would not have a balance point between asymmetries, it would be a point of equilibrium , there would be no internal electromagnetism, nor external to the point of equilibrium, there would be an apparently mobile medium.

This looks incorrect to me. Do you mind clarifying and proving your statements. How does matter motion matter here? Why can't matter be separated from antimatter (take a PET scan for instance or the LEP collider).