The answer to one of the biggest mysteries in the universe may come down to one of the tiniest, creepiest particles.
Matter is common in the cosmos. Everything around us, from planets to stars to puppies, is made of matter. But matter has another face: antimatter. Protons, electrons, and other particles have antimatter counterparts: antiprotons, positrons, etc. For some reason, however, antimatter is much rarer than matter, and no one knows why.
Physicists believe that the universe was born with equal amounts of matter and antimatter. Since the matter and antimatter counterparts annihilate on contact, that suggests the universe should have ended up with nothing but energy. Something must have tipped the balance.
Some physicists believe that light subatomic particles called neutrinos could signal an answer. These particles are extremely tinywith less than one millionth the mass of an electron (Serial number: 04/21/21). They are produced in radioactive decays and in the sun and other cosmic environments. Known for their ethereal tendency to evade detection, neutrinos have earned the nickname “ghost particles.” These creepy particles, originally thought to be massless, have a healthy trajectory to produce scientific surprises (Serial number: 6/10/15).
Now researchers are building huge detectors to find out if neutrinos could help solve the mystery of the universe’s matter. the Hyper-Kamiokande experiment in the city of Hida, Japan, and the Deep underground neutrino experiment in Lead, SD, he will study neutrinos and their antimatter counterparts, antineutrinos. Scientists suspect that a difference in the behavior of neutrinos and antineutrinos could hint at the origins of the imbalance between matter and antimatter.
Watch the video below to find out how neutrinos could reveal why the universe contains, well, anything.