Tachyons and antiparticles are fundamentally different concepts in physics. Tachyons are hypothetical particles that, if they exist, would travel faster than the speed of light and could theoretically allow for communication with the past. In contrast, antiparticles are real entities associated with their corresponding particles, possessing the same mass and traveling at subluminal speeds. Misconceptions often arise from popular science interpretations, particularly regarding the notion of particles traveling backwards in time.
PREREQUISITESPhysics students, researchers in theoretical physics, and science communicators seeking to clarify the distinctions between tachyons and antiparticles.
Hi! Are the anti particles in some sense the hypothetical resultant entities of quantum interaction between the photons and the anti-matter of the universe they travel through?Orodruin said:That is a misconception (on both accounts) from popularised science. Tachyons are hypothetical and would travel faster than the speed of light. If they exist, then you could in principle use them to send a message to your past. Whether or not they "travel" backwards in time would be a question of reference frames.
Anti-particles are a different story all-together. There is a very particular sense popular science authors are using to say that they are "particles traveling backwards in time", but they very often fail to specify what that sense is. Anti-particles are associated with the corresponding particles and have the same mass. They travel at subluminal speeds (or at light speed if massless). Tachyons have nothing to do with normal particles and would travel at superluminal speeds.