– Scientists have discovered the heaviest antimatter particle ever detected, called antihyperhydrogen-4. It is made up of an antiproton, two antineutrons and one antihyperon.
– The particle was discovered among traces from 6 billion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
– Studying this antimatter particle could help uncover why the universe is dominated by matter rather than an equal mix of matter and antimatter, as was expected from theories of the Big Bang.
– The standard model predicts matter and antimatter should have annihilated each other after the Big Bang, but something caused an imbalance leading to more matter. Understanding this could shed light on physical differences between matter and antimatter.
– The discovery of antihyperhydrogen-4 did not reveal any significant differences in its properties compared to its matter counterpart, hyperhydrogen-4, which is consistent with known physics.
– Further study comparing the masses and other traits of antimatter and matter particles could provide clues about how the matter-dominated universe emerged from the first moments after the Big Bang.
Source: Space
