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Exotic atoms

Antimatter may matter

Nature volume 529, pages 294–295 (2016)Cite this article

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The charge neutrality of the antimatter atom antihydrogen has been confirmed with unprecedented accuracy, paving the way for experiments that could simultaneously solve several of physics' biggest mysteries. See Letter p.373

Something is wrong with our knowledge of antimatter. Our very existence proves this because, if our current understanding of antimatter were correct, the vast majority of the matter from which we are made would have been annihilated with antimatter shortly after the Big Bang. The problem is that we do not know what part of our understanding is wrong, so studies are needed of the basic properties of antimatter. On page 373 of this issue, Ahmadi et al.1 report a limit on the net charge of antihydrogen — atoms comprised of antiprotons and positrons, the antimatter counterparts of protons and electrons, respectively. Although the researchers have not yet identified the difference between matter and antimatter that might explain our matter-dominated Universe, their experiment paves the way for measurements that could fundamentally change our understanding of the Universe.

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Figure 1: The ALPHA facility at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Thomas J. Phillips is in the Department of Physics, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA.,

    Thomas J. Phillips

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  1. Thomas J. Phillips
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Correspondence to Thomas J. Phillips.

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Particle physics: Matter and antimatter scrutinized

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Phillips, T. Antimatter may matter. Nature 529, 294–295 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/529294a

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