Two papers published this week showcase the perplexing origins and potential uses of antimatter, a type of matter that flips the rules governing ordinary matter onto their heads. One paper, published today in JCAP, found that antinuclei from cosmic rays may be an indicator of a specific kind of a dark matter. In a separate paper, published earlier this week in AIP Advances, researchers describe a method of detecting nuclear reactors’ locations and activity using antineutrinos produced by the facilities’ nuclear reactions.
Antimatter is important because it may help to explain fundamental cosmic mysteries, like why the universe is made of matter instead of an equal mix of matter and antimatter. These studies fit into a larger effort to crack some of physics’ biggest puzzles, including the nature of dark matter, physics at the smallest scales, and possibly even the origin of the universe itself. Despite its name, antimatter is literally matter.
It has mass. Antimatter refers to a group of particles that have opposite electrical charges to their ordinary counterparts. You’ve heard of electrons (which have a negative charge) and protons (with a positive charge); their antimatter counterparts are positrons (with a positive charge) and an antiproton (a negative charge).
Though there are differences in the charge of the particles, antimatter isn’t entirely alien to the fundamental forces. Last year , a team of physicists found that antimatter reacts to gravity the same way.
