Posted on 08/04/2004 9:28:59 PM PDT by ScuzzyTerminator
Today, physicists conducting the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), a Department of Energy laboratory operated by Stanford University, announced exciting new results demonstrating a dramatic difference in the behavior of matter and antimatter. They submitted their results to the journal Physical Review Letters for online publication.
SLAC’s PEP-II accelerator collides electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons, to produce an abundance of exotic heavy particle and anti-particle pairs known as B and anti-B mesons. These rare forms of matter and antimatter are short-lived, decaying in turn to other lighter subatomic particles, such as kaons and pions, which are observed in the BaBar experiment.
“If there were no difference between matter and antimatter, both the B meson and the anti-B meson would exhibit exactly the same pattern of decays. However, our new measurement shows an example of a large difference in decay rates instead,” said BaBar spokesman Marcello Giorgi,a physicist at Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and the University of Pisa.
By sifting through the decays of more than 200 million pairs of B and anti-B mesons, BaBar experimenters have discovered striking matter-antimatter asymmetry. “We found 910 examples of the B meson decaying to a kaon and a pion, but only 696 examples for the anti-B mesons,” Giorgi explained.
While BaBar and other experiments have observed matter-antimatter asymmetries before, this is the first instance in B decays of a difference obtained by simply counting up the number of matter and antimatter decays, a phenomenon known as direct charge parity (CP) violation.
“We have observed a clear, strong signal for asymmetrical behavior of matter and antimatter resulting from the direct CP violation mechanism,” said James Olsen of Princeton University, one of the leaders of the analysis.
The new observation of a 13 percent preference for the B meson over the anti-B meson dwarfs a similar effect observed in kaons at only a tiny rate of 4 parts in a million. “The effect we have measured with B mesons is roughly 100,000 times stronger than for kaons,” Olsen said. “The pattern of different types of matter-antimatter asymmetries is starting to come together into a coherent picture.”
When the universe began with the big bang, matter and antimatter were present in equal amounts. But all observations indicate that we live in a universe made only of matter. What happened to the antimatter?
Subtle differences between the behavior of matter and antimatter must be responsible for the matter-antimatter imbalance that developed in our universe. But our current knowledge of these differences is incomplete and insufficient to account for the observed matter domination. CP violation is one of the three conditions outlined by Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov to account for the observed imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe.
"This is another great scientific achievement for the B-factory at SLAC," said Raymond L. Orbach, Director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science. "The new result from BaBar, and related measurements at other accelerators around the world, continue to improve our understanding of CP violation and ultimately may tell us why the visible universe is only matter."
“The new measurement is very much a result of the outstanding performance of SLAC’s PEP-II accelerator and the efficiency of the BABAR detector,” Giorgi said. “The accelerator is now operating at 3 times its design performance and BaBar is able to record about 98 percent of collisions.”
“This is an exciting and beautiful result—it probes a key mechanism underlying the structure and behavior of matter,” said SLAC Director Jonathan Dorfan. “The observation of the direct CP violation effect in B decays is a significant step forward in assembling the pieces of the puzzle of matter versus antimatter.”
Some 600 scientists and engineers from 75 institutions in Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are working on BaBar. SLAC is funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
Then what was the "God" that created "God", and how did this "God" form?
Talk about circular logic....
(SLACker) ping
I like the way you think there.
So...does this help Bush, or Kerry?
I have a question. If a photon has no mass, how can it have momentum?
Talk about misunderstanding of the word "eternal".
The mind is the builder, and the physical is the result. Thus is born Quantum Psychics and theology. Some try to brush off theology as a simple matter, but who knows more about creation than the creator itself? The nudge, thought, the word?
"As a man declareith a thing, so shall it be."
"If you say unto this mountain 'fall into the sea' and truly believe it will fall into the sea, it will fall into the sea."
"If ye have the faith but of a mustard seed, anything is possible."
Anti matter is the dimension unseen by the human eye, but it creates it's opposite in the physical world. There's got to be balance in everything. Without balance, there's chaos.
When an ancient city is uncovered by archaeologists, the scientists examine the evidence within the ruins to determine that it was indeed built, and therefore had builders. It is through accepting that basic premise that they begin to learn of the builders and city dwellers and any connection that present day people have to the ancient people of that place. The whole purpose of the excavation is to discover the roots of human civilization and accomplishment.
Science would do well to accept the basic premise that the universe has a builder, and to know him and our connection to him, we can examine the evidence for clues to his purpose.
Real science is the art and exercise of getting to know the creator. Then we can ask where he came from.
It might help to look at Einstein's full equation for the tranlation of matter into energy.
It is: E^s = m^2 * c^4 + p^2 * c2, where 'E' is energy, 'c 'is the speed of light, and 'p' is momentum. E = mc^2 is what you get when you assume momentum is zero and take the positive root of the preceding equation, i.e., E = mc^2 is only for particles that aren't moving. But all other particles have momentum, by the preceding equation, which you can find out if you know how much more energy they have than their rest energy.
"When the universe began with the big bang, matter and antimatter were present in equal amounts."
Well I find it a bit funny the way the above was stated. As if it were an absolute fact that we know there were equal quantities of matter and antimatter when it all "began". Do we really "know" that? We may well theorize that but we can't really know in absolute terms.
Thank you so much.
"God" is the alpha and omega - the beginning and the end. The space time continuum. It rolls back on itself forever and ever.
The only reason science refuses the existence of this "God" thing is because they can't put it into a mathematical formula.
They see it, but can't name it.
Moses - "And what shall I tell the people you are?"
The unknown "word" -"Tell them the great I Am has sent you."
It/he just is.
In principle, I agree with you. Actually, I have a strong personal belief that the physical can be altered by the mental mind. How it works, is the question.
I do have a tiny little problem with your last statement however.
Can you provide an example of a laboratory Physics experiment which demonstrated how anti-matter "creates it's opposite in the physical world."
I would be most interested in learning about this Physics demonstration.
Thanks, I have to admit that the question had me a little stumped. I knew that light does have momentum, but I could only think of the standard E = M C^2 equation.
You of course, are correct and answered the question.
Bush caused it, in the hopes that it would boost his poll numbers, but it will backfire. The networks will expose his plot. This will help sKerry, and it's all Bush's fault.
I am a photolithography engineer and work with a 193nm Scanner. I was pondering the question at work and nobody knew the answer. BTW, I don't have a physics background.
*groan* SHAME on you!!!
Their matter can be expressed in terms of drunkenness. If you consume enough of them, you will experience their anti-matter the following morning. Hangover.
Y'all hiring???
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