CERN's Large Hadron Collider finds the heaviest antimatter particle yet
CERN's LHC finds antihyperhelium-4, the heaviest antimatter yet.
Scientists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful particle accelerator, have detected the heaviest form of antimatter yet: antihyperhelium-4. This particle, discovered by the ALICE experiment team, is composed of two antiprotons, an antineutron, and an antilambda particle.
The discovery arose from a 2018 experiment where lead ions were collided at high speeds to mimic early universe conditions. Researchers employed machine learning to analyze the collision data, identifying signatures of antihyperhelium-4 and the lighter antihyperhydrogen-4.
These findings are crucial for exploring cosmic conditions when the universe was less than a second old and for addressing the baryon asymmetry problem. The results also reiterate that matter and antimatter are created equally, prompting questions on matter dominance post-Big Bang.