Dark energy + missing antimatter

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the relationship between dark energy and the scarcity of antimatter in the universe. Participants explore whether dark energy influenced the production of antimatter in the early universe and the implications of matter-antimatter interactions.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests that dark energy may have prevented antimatter from being produced in the early universe, leading to the current scarcity of antimatter.
  • Another participant counters that the imbalance between matter and antimatter was due to a ratio of 1000 antimatter particles for every 1001 matter particles, which resulted in matter prevailing.
  • Questions are raised about the fate of the energy from the canceled particles and whether it could have led to a balanced state of matter and antimatter.
  • There is a discussion about whether neutrons can be antimatter and how they would interact with normal matter, along with inquiries about the existence of antimatter counterparts for various particles.
  • One participant humorously critiques the leading hypothesis regarding matter-antimatter ratios, suggesting it seems overly simplistic.
  • Another participant provides a detailed explanation of antiparticles, their properties, and the conditions under which they can be created, mentioning the possibility of antimatter regions in the universe, though noting this is considered unlikely.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the mechanisms behind the scarcity of antimatter and the role of dark energy, with no consensus reached on these points. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the implications of energy cancellation and the nature of antimatter.

Contextual Notes

Some claims depend on specific interpretations of early universe conditions and particle interactions, which are not universally accepted. The discussion includes speculative elements about antimatter regions in the universe and the behavior of antiparticles.

kurious
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dark energy + "missing" antimatter

Did dark energy stop antimatter from being produced in the early universe
and is this why there is not much antimatter around today?
 
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no, antimatter was stopped from being produced because, at the beginning of the early universe, there were 1000 antimatter particles, for ever 1001 matter particles. They all canceled each other out, and matter obviously won.. that is the leading hypothesis i believe..
 
if so where did the missing energy go from the 1000 particles canceled out by each other??
wouldnot the energy recondence into a 50/50 normal vs antimater state

second question can neutron be anti matter, will it react with a normal matter
neutron
do all things have anti matter twins ? photons, or other bits without charge
would an anti matter sun put out normal photons
 
Yes neutrons have antiparticles too.
 
ray b said:
if so where did the missing energy go from the 1000 particles canceled out by each other??
wouldnot the energy recondence into a 50/50 normal vs antimater state
Yes, this went on until the resulting annihilation energy was insufficient to create matter/anti-matter pairs; crudely, what was 'left' was photons, which collided vigourously with the (largely) protons and electrons (and some alpha particles) until the universe cooled sufficiently that the p and e could form H atoms. At this time, matter and radiation 'decoupled', forming 'the surface of last scattering', whose vastly redshifted (z > 1000) photons we detect today as the CMBR.
 
hope this answers the quest.

ray b said:
if so where did the missing energy go from the 1000 particles canceled out by each other??
wouldnot the energy recondence into a 50/50 normal vs antimater state

When the Matter and the antimatter was canceling each other out, the extra one particle of matter, survived (1000 AM vs. 1001 M particles) THe rest were all "destroyed" i believe, but there were so many matter particles, which weren't canceled out, that we have a universe off of them today.
 
pnjabiloafer said:
no, antimatter was stopped from being produced because, at the beginning of the early universe, there were 1000 antimatter particles, for ever 1001 matter particles. They all canceled each other out, and matter obviously won.. that is the leading hypothesis i believe..

That is the most comical hypothesis I have ever heard :biggrin: Somehow, it seems all too easy to be true, but that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't.
 
For an easy to understand explanation of anti-matter and how it came to exist, read "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown :wink: It's a great book. Meanwhile, I found something that might be of interest. The contents of this site is posted below...

Particles which are identical to ordinary particles such as protons, electrons and neutrons in every way except one. The antiparticle of the electron, called the positron, has the same cloud-like nature as the electron and same mass, but has a positive electric charge. The antiproton has the same mass as the proton but carries a negative charge. The antineutron has opposite magnetic moment to a neutron.
We never meet these antimatter particles in normal life, and that is a good thing, because when matter meets antimatter they annihilate each other and their matter energy is changed into radiation. Antiparticles are real, however, and can be made in high energy particle accelerators.

Some people believe that some regions of the Universe may be made of antimatter. Perhaps whole galaxies might be made of antimatter, separated from normal matter galaxies by vast oceans of empty space? Based on our current understanding of the early events in the Universe, this seems very unlikely. Particles and antiparticles were created close together in the young Universe. Nobody has yet thought of a way they could have been separated into different galaxies.

If a spaceship came to Earth from some distant galaxy we would not be able to tell whether it was made of antimatter just by looking at it since matter and antimatter look the same. But if it was antimatter it would explode when it tried to land!

By adding a positron to an antiproton it is possible to make an antiatom of hydrogen. This was first achieved in 1995 at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) by firing antiprotons through a xenon gas jet. Some of the antiprotons hit protons in the xenon nuclei, creating pairs of electrons and positrons. A few of these positrons then stuck to the antiprotons to form antihydrogen.

Antiatoms do not last very long on Earth. Each antiatom produced at CERN survived for only about forty-billionths of a second before it met ordinary matter and changed into gamma radiation.
 

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