Where Is Half of the Universe?

• Autores: Don Lincoln
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 61, Nº. 8, 2023, págs. 646-650
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • To study fundamental physics is to try to understand the laws that govern the behavior of mass and energy at the deepest and most foundational level. And over the past century or so, scientists have made tremendous progress, from being able to model the quarks and leptons that are the smallest and most basic building blocks of matter discovered so far to describing the birth, life, and death of the universe itself.

    However, despite the spectacular successes of which the physics community can be rightfully proud, there are a few situations where researchers attempt to blend two well-validated theories and the result disagrees with data. Such a situation could represent a disaster for one or both of the theories, or the discrepancy could merely demonstrate that at least one of the two ideas is incomplete. One very striking example is when the idea of antimatter confronts the theory of the Big Bang. When combined, they predict a very different universe than the one we observe. This unsettling tension sets the stage for one of the most pressing research programs in contemporary physics.