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A new collider can teach us about the origin of matter
The laws of nature are almost perfectly symmetric between matter and antimatter, and yet our Universe is made ~100% of matter only. But why?
The Universe is a remarkable place, and we’ve made tremendous leaps in the 20th and 21st century towards understanding it better than ever. We know enormous amounts about the fundamental particles that make up our Universe, as well as the laws and rules that govern not only those particles, but the space that they inhabit (and the space in between them) as well. And we have a cosmic origin story for our Universe as well: the inflationary hot Big Bang, which allows us to trace our cosmic history back some 13.8 billion years into the past. Through this understanding, we can paint a coherent picture of what our Universe was like way back in its earliest stages, and how those initial conditions enabled our cosmos to grow up and become the way it is today.
But despite all that we’ve learned about reality — and what composes it — at a fundamental level, there are still some puzzles that remain unsolved.
- Why do the known particles have the masses that they do, as opposed to any other value?
- How did our Universe, and practically everything in it, come…
