Early annihilation of antimatter

[Jared409]

If a positron can be seen as an electron moving backwards in time technically, could it be that antimatter was annihilated near the beginning of the universe because it could go no further backwards in time that at the moment of the big bang, leaving only matter going forward in time?

 

[Bill_K]

Jared409, I know the popular accounts say things like this, but nothing moves backwards in time, not even positrons. The present cannot influence the past. The cause must always precede the effect, and this applies even to antiparticles.

There is a mathematical relationship between a process which emits an electron into the final state and a process which absorbs a positron from the initial state but is otherwise the same. The relationship is useful in doing calculations, but should not be taken literally as time travel.

 

[Jared409]

Okay, that's what I had heard once before, but I wasn't completely sure on the subject. Thanks for clearing that up for me!