Scientific Creation and Destruction: Matter and Antimatter
BOOK III: The Enigmatic Mystery – Consideration #193
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Tuesday June 17, 2025
“For every one billion particles of antimatter there were one billion and one particles of matter. And when the mutual annihilation was complete, one billionth remained - and that's our present universe.”
– Albert Einstein
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
Antimatter is an interesting phenomenon, because it appears to disrupt the overall symmetry of the universe. Theoretically, there should be an equal balance between the amount of matter and antimatter in the universe. However, if there were, then the universe would not exist. Because there would be no matter. It would have all been annihilated by antimatter. But it seems that somehow the Big Bang created slightly more matter particles than antimatter particles, resulting in what we call the empirical universe.
“According to theory, the big bang should have created matter and antimatter in equal amounts. When matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate, leaving nothing but energy behind. So in principle, none of us should exist.
But we do. And as far as physicists can tell, it’s only because, in the end, there was one extra matter particle for every billion matter-antimatter pairs. Physicists are hard at work trying to explain this asymmetry.”
– Diana Kwon, Ten Things You Might Not Know About Antimatter
Therefore, either the mathematics of quantum reality do not add up, or there remains some unanswered mystery regarding how such a thing could have occurred. The self-evident reason why it occurred is because there would be no possibility of a universe, consciousness, or life if it had not. However, this is a rational conclusion, not an empirical one.
The only other empirical possibility is that there actually was an equal amount of matter and antimatter after the Big Bang, but a small amount of antimatter somehow separated from the rest of the emerging universe, and did not annihilate the small amount of remaining matter that we now call the empirical universe. It is still out there somewhere beyond the “material universe” where it no longer threatens its actuality, but it does still exist.
CONSIDERATION #193 – Scientific Creation and Destruction: Matter and Antimatter
Antimatter sounds a lot like something from a science fiction movie; where the universe is made up of opposite particles that are eternally attempting to eliminate each other in a cosmic struggle over the existence or non-existence of the universe itself. In Taoist terms it reflects the concept of yin and yang; theologically it suggests the divine battle between good and evil; philosophically it supports the concept of being and non-being; and from a quantum perspective it could be thought of digitally as a “state” of on, or off. But from a scientific standpoint it represents an empirical and rational conundrum.
To fully understand and appreciate this conundrum we first need to clearly define what antimatter actually is.
“Antimatter is a material composed of so-called antiparticles. It is believed that every particle we know of has an antimatter companion that is virtually identical to itself, but with the opposite charge… When a particle and its antiparticle meet, they annihilate each other – disappearing in a burst of light.”
– Roger Jones, Explainer: What is Antimatter?
For all intents and purposes antimatter represents a mirror image of what we call empirical reality. Material atoms consist of protons, neutrons, and electrons, which have a negative charge. Antimatter atoms consist of antiprotons, antineutrons, and positrons, which have a positive charge.
The big problem for science centers around how there could be an asymmetrical amount of matter particles and antimatter particles created from the Big Bang. Furthermore, if there were originally equal amounts of each after the Big Bang, what happened to the antimatter particles that never interacted and annihilated their equivalent matter particles, which would still have to exist somewhere? Where is that antimatter?
“There are two plausible solutions to this existential mystery. First, there might be some subtle difference in the physics of matter and antimatter that left the early universe with a surplus of matter. While theory predicts that the antimatter world is a perfect reflection of our own, experiments have already found suspicious scratches in the mirror. In 1998, CERN experiments showed that one particular exotic particle, the kaon, turned into its antiparticle slightly more often than the reverse happened, creating a tiny imbalance between the two…
The second plausible answer to the matter mystery is that annihilation was not total in those first few seconds: somehow, matter and antimatter managed to escape each other’s fatal grasp. Somewhere out there, in some mirror region of the cosmos, antimatter is lurking and has coalesced into anti-stars, anti-galaxies and maybe even anti-life.”
– Amanda Gefter, Antimatter Mysteries 1: Where Is All the Antimatter?
The existence of matter and antimatter serve as a reminder of how opposites consistently demonstrate a balance throughout the universe. Somehow, in a manner not yet known, this balance of creation and destruction called matter and antimatter was altered, allowing for the manifestation of a complex physical universe capable of generating and sustaining self-conscious living beings. This is, perhaps, the greatest mystery of all.
POSTSCRIPT
Although antimatter sounds like some kind of science fiction metaphor for a potential universal cataclysm or annihilation, there are actually current and future practical applications for antimatter. Positrons, the opposite particle of an electron, are currently being used in PET scans allowing for clearer 3D Images of internal organs. Antimatter is also being considered for future applications in space, such as in developing a more efficient and powerful fuel source for inter-stellar space travel, as well as in nuclear science as a possible quantum trigger for nuclear weapons because of the incredible high energy released upon their annihilation.
Antimatter research at CERN is currently focusing on understanding the fundamental laws of physics and the quantum composition of the universe. Even everyday items such as bananas are a part of this matter-antimatter mystery; a small amount of their radioactive potassium-40 decays and omits a positron approximately every 75 minutes. This must make the electrons around fruit stands very nervous!
“Quantum theories related to matter and antimatter reflect the universal manifestation of this duality.”
The ubiquitous nature of the duality that permeates empirical reality now appears to also be permeating rational reality as well. Quantum theories related to matter and antimatter reflect the universal manifestation of this duality. Isaac Newton once proposed that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Today, quantum physicists are proposing that “for every particle in the universe there is an equal and opposite particle in the universe.”
Quantum reality appears to reflect the same balance expressed in Taoism; a balance in which reality is manifested through the opposites of dark and light, being and nonbeing, yin and yang, or matter and antimatter. It is somehow through this process of duality that the mystery of reality is manifested and revealed to human consciousness.
I am a little worried about where that extra antimatter might be though.
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