However, T2K’s new result indicates that the differences in the behaviour of neutrinos and antineutrinos appear to be quite large. If confirmed – at the moment we’re over 95 per cent sure – it will have profound implications for physics and should point the way to a better understanding of how our universe evolved.” More than 95 per cent sure Previously, scientists have found some differences in behaviour between matter and antimatter versions of subatomic particles called quarks, but the differences observed so far do not seem to be large enough to account for the dominance of matter in the universe. Dr Patrick Dunne, from the Department of Physics at Imperial, said: “This result brings us closer than ever before to answering the fundamental question of why the matter in our universe exists. Now, an international team of researchers that make up the T2K Collaboration, including Imperial College London scientists, have found the strongest evidence yet that neutrinos and antineutrinos behave differently, and therefore may not wipe each other out. They should be exact opposites in their properties and behaviour, which is what makes them annihilate each other on contact. Each particle of matter has an antimatter equivalent, and neutrinos are no different, with an antimatter equivalent called antineutrinos.
Instead, physicists suggest there must be differences in the way matter and antimatter behave that explain why matter persisted and now dominates the universe. Scientists believe equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created at the beginning of the universe, but this would mean they should have wiped each other out, annihilating the universe as it began. The current laws of physics do not explain why matter persists over antimatter – why the universe is made of ‘stuff’. Strongest evidence yet that neutrinos explain how the universe exists by Hayley Dunning New data throws more support behind the theory that neutrinos are the reason the universe is dominated by matter.
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