Scientists one step closer to understanding the mystery of matter in the universe
University of Sussex
Scientists at the University of Sussex have measured a property of the neutron – a fundamental particle in the universe – more precisely than ever before. Their research is part of an investigation into why there is matter left over in the universe, that is, why all the antimatter created in the Big Bang didn’t just cancel out the matter.
The team – which included the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, and a number of other institutions – was looking into whether or not the neutron acts like an “electric compass”. Neutrons are believed to be slightly asymmetrical in shape, being slightly positive at one end and slightly negative at the other – a bit like the electrical equivalent of a bar magnet. This is the so-called “electric dipole moment” (EDM), and is what the team was looking for.
This is an important piece of the puzzle in the mystery of why matter remains in the Universe, because scientific theories about why there is matter left over also predict that neutrons have the “electric compass” property, to a greater or lesser extent. Measuring it then it helps scientists to get closer to the truth about why matter remains.
The team of physicists found that the neutron has a significantly smaller EDM than predicted by various theories about why matter remains in the universe; this makes these theories less likely to be correct, so they have to be altered, or new theories found. In fact it’s been said in the literature that over the years, these EDM measurements, considered as a set, have probably disproved more theories than any other experiment in the history of physics. The results are reported today, Friday 28 February 2020, in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Professor Philip Harris, Head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and leader of the EDM group at the University of Sussex, said:
“After more than two decades of work by researchers at the University of Sussex and elsewhere, a final result has emerged from an experiment designed to address one of the most profound problems in cosmology for the last fifty years: namely, the question of why the Universe contains so much more matter than antimatter, and, indeed, why it now contains any matter at all. Why didn’t the antimatter cancel out all the matter? Why is there any matter left?
“The answer relates to a structural asymmetry that should appear in fundamental particles like neutrons. This is what we’ve been looking for. We’ve found that the “electric dipole moment” is smaller than previously believed. This helps us to rule out theories about why there is matter left over – because the theories governing the two things are linked.
“We have set a new international standard for the sensitivity of this experiment. What we’re searching for in the neutron – the asymmetry which shows that it is positive at one end and negative at the other – is incredibly tiny. Our experiment was able to measure this in such detail that if the asymmetry could be scaled up to the size of a football, then a football scaled up by the same amount would fill the visible Universe”.
The experiment is an upgraded version of apparatus originally designed by researchers at the University of Sussex and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), and which has held the world sensitivity record continuously from 1999 until now.
Dr Maurits van der Grinten, from the neutron EDM group at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), said:
“The experiment combines various state of the art technologies that all need to perform simultaneously. We’re pleased that the equipment, technology and expertise developed by scientists from RAL has contributed to the work to push the limit on this important parameter”
Dr Clark Griffith, Lecturer in Physics from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex, said:
“This experiment brings together techniques from atomic and low energy nuclear physics, including laser-based optical magnetometry and quantum-spin manipulation. By using these multi-disciplinary tools to measure the properties of the neutron extremely precisely, we are able to probe questions relevant to high-energy particle physics and the fundamental nature of the symmetries underlying the universe. ”
50,000 measurements
Any electric dipole moment that a neutron may have is tiny, and so is extremely difficult to measure. Previous measurements by other researchers have borne this out. In particular, the team had to go to great lengths to keep the local magnetic field very constant during their latest measurement. For example, every truck that drove by on the road next to the institute disturbed the magnetic field on a scale that would have been significant for the experiment, so this effect had to be compensated for during the measurement.
Also, the number of neutrons observed needed to be large enough to provide a chance to measure the electric dipole moment. The measurements ran over a period of two years. So-called ultracold neutrons, that is, neutrons with a comparatively slow speed, were measured. Every 300 seconds, a bunch of more than 10,000 neutrons was directed to the experiment and examined in detail. The researchers measured a total of 50,000 such bunches.
A new international standard is set
The researchers’ latest results supported and enhanced those of their predecessors: a new international standard has been set. The size of the EDM is still too small to measure with the instruments that have been used up until now, so some theories that attempted to explain the excess of matter have become less likely. The mystery therefore remains, for the time being.
The next, more precise, measurement is already being constructed at PSI. The PSI collaboration expects to start their next series of measurements by 2021.
Search for “new physics”
The new result was determined by a group of researchers at 18 institutes and universities in Europe and the USA on the basis of data collected at PSI’s ultracold neutron source. The researchers collected measurement data there over a period of two years, evaluated it very carefully in two separate teams, and were then able to obtain a more accurate result than ever before.
The research project is part of the search for “new physics” that would go beyond the so-called Standard Model of Physics, which sets out the properties of all known particles. This is also a major goal of experiments at larger facilities such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.
The techniques originally developed for the first EDM measurement in the 1950s led to world-changing developments such as atomic clocks and MRI scanners, and to this day it retains its huge and ongoing impact in the field of particle physics.
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A lessor EDM than expected eliminates most theories for why matter exists…Does an immeasurably small EDM leave room for any theories at all?
SR
The paper can be found here https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.11966
We return to the major question.
How many physisists do we need to find nothing?
So, their result is that EDM of neutron is actually zero.
Well, zero +/- 1e-26 e cm.
I do not believe, we will find the relevant asymmetry NOW.
It existed at the Big Bang only: nothing was symmetric at THAT time.
How do we know that other galaxies are not antimatter?
The photon is its own anti particle so the same light would reach us from and anti-galaxy. We would not know form here.
Because we would detect gamma radiation from annihilations of particles with antiparticles : electron positron gives two gamma of specific energy. No such lines are seen in the spectra at the level that would occur when a galaxy and an antigalaxy were nearing each other. That is how we know that our planetary system and our galaxy are all matter too.
If a particular galaxy were almost entirely anti-matter, (much as ours is almost entirely matter) there wouldn’t be any more matter/anti-matter interactions in an anti-matter galaxy than there are in ours.
Cosmic rays aren’t photons.
Have we discovered any anti-matter cosmic rays?
They are not actually neutrons they are anti-neutrons, and that is where most of the vast amount of antimatter of the universe is hiding. Real neutrons exist in antimatter.
🙂
Does it matter?
Looking for goldfish farts in a jacuzzi.
Darn! Yet another keyboard coffee-fied.
What if in the incredibly dense and energetic period following the Big Bang various bizarre forms of life evolved to consciousness and took action to shape the subsequent Universe we now know for the better? Maybe God kept a bunch of them around as a reward, or at least their souls?
Do thoughts have mass and/or energy?
Understanding the properties of the neutron through scientific experiments is worthwhile.
Science doesn’t understand the underlying physics of gravity… just how it operates– science can predict it.
Question: could this type of scientific inquiry open doors regarding the possibility of an anti-gravity device?
That could be the biggest scientific breakthrough in history.
There was no big bang, only some local event in an infinite and eternal steady state universe which created the microwave background and continues to create more matter as it expands. There was no “inflation”, which was made up to make the numbers work as was dark matter, etc. Dark energy is merely a property of our space/time bubble. One way to look at it at least.
Yes, the red shift of the supposed accelerating expansion with distance is a misinterpretation. Unless we are the center of the universe – me maybe, but not the rest of you – some of those bodies should be accelerating toward us or keeping pace, or dropping behind.. Why would ALL the other matter in the universe be accelerating away from us, as though we had stinky feet? As for dark matter, same thing; a mathematical kludge to overcome the faults in the big bang model of the universe.
Science, looking for the biggest and smallest. And defining how it works and proving it. And engineers making something of it.
A lot of comments about accidents and God. When too many accidents happen people look at a cause and is someone causing it. To get to where we are now a lot of accidents have had to happen and in a productive way.
This is not to be confused with settled science and Al the great huckster.
Huckster definition is – hawker, peddler; especially : one who sells or advertises something in an aggressive, dishonest, or annoying way.
Science… defining how it works and proving it
Establishing correlations in a limited frame of reference.
God is a human-made construct. Without human minds there is no God.
I would be very interested in the scientific evidence for that statement.
I know I own the burden of proof because I said it, but I would very interested in the scientific evidence for the opposite.
And watch out at zebra crossings!
https://crc-internet.org/our-doctrine/catholic-counter-reformation/whole-truth-fatima.html
https://crc-internet.org/our-doctrine/catholic-counter-reformation/the-whole-truth-about-fatima-volume-2.html
“The war is going to end, but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the reign of Pius XI.
“ When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine and persecutions against the Church and the Holy Father.
“ To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart…
~ our lady of fatima july 13, 1917
“Look, I am going to Heaven, and as for you, when you see the light which the Lady told us would come one night before the war, you run up there too.” “Don’t you see that nobody can just run off to Heaven!” “That’s true, you cannot! But don’t be afraid! In Heaven I’ll be praying hard for you, for the Holy Father, for Portugal, so that the war will not come here, and for all priests.”
Note that Jacinta says, “…the light which the Lady told us would come one night before the war…”
So what happened on the day that the light was “one night before”? The following is an accounting of the timing of the “red symphony”:
The Rakovsky Interrogation Provided Stalin with the Plan which led directly to the Beginning of World War II
Let’s hear from Deirdre Manifold in Towards World Government: New World Order, regarding the timing of the Rakovsky interview in relation to the strange “unknown” light in the sky:
Now more than fifty years later, the world media keeps up the illusion that Hitler was solely responsible for starting World War II. While plans were in motion to bring about the war by one means or another, the [Rakovsky Interrogation shows] beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the war was triggered by the proposals set out by Rakovsky and accepted by Stalin. In return for the Plan, Rakovsky managed to save his life . . .
And here again is Deidre Manifold on the coincidence in timing between the “unknown light” and the Rakovsky interrogation:
The exact timing of the questioning is significant. It took place from midnight to 6 A.M. on the night of January 25-26, 1938. It is important to note that Moscow time is three hours ahead of Western European time. As reported in the daily press all over Western Europe, and in the New York Times on January 26, 1938, a strange bright light lit up the sky all across Europe from 6:30 to 9:30 P.M. on the previous evening. This would have been between 9:30 P.M. and 12:30 A.M. Moscow time. The serious questioning of Rakovsky began at about 12:30 A.M. Moscow time.
When the bright light shone in the sky, Sister Lucia, the Fatima seer, in her convent in Spain, let it be known that this was the sign given by God, and foretold by Our Lady of Fatima on July 13, 1917, that a major war would soon occur.
Now we can conclude that the exact timing of the Rakovsky interview was astounding.
The “unknown light” shown in the Western Europe evening sky throughout the entire first half hour of the Rakovsky interview at which point it faded. But the same unknown light shown in the evening skies of North America almost till the end of the interview.
As Our Lady’s prophesied “unknown light” illuminated the evening skies of Europe and North America, the top Communist, Freemason, and Rothschild agent Christian Rakovsky was giving Stalin’s chief interrogator the strategy to approach Hitler with the idea of the Hitler-Stalin pact. This was the idea which led directly to World War II …
Maybe. The “human-made construct” assumption/assertion is a conflation of logical domains. Science is, with cause, a near-domain philosophy and practice.
Without human minds there is no God.
Yeah… tell that one to Jesus Christ on judgement day. (see how far it will get you)
Why stop with God. Would it also be true that without humans there would be no Universe?
The Bible says Satan is the prince of the air; i.e. he has been given certain control for a time over this world. Humans are full of pride. Bring the two together outside the purview of God (Jesus), and we conjure up all kinds of wild beliefs; like what is the point (of life).
“Would it also be true that without humans there would be no Universe?”
No.
“Humans are full of pride.”
Indeed we are.
The Aletsch glacier—now 13 miles (21 kilometers) long, about half a mile (0.8 kilometer) wide, and roughly 3,000 feet (900 meters) deep—has lost nearly 3 miles (5 kilometers) in length and 650 feet (200 meters) in depth since 1864.
“We prayed for the ice to recede, and our prayer worked—too well,” said Herbert Volken, mountain guide and mayor of Conches, the district that includes Fiesch. In 2009 the local parish council petitioned the Vatican to allow a change in the wording of the prayer. A year later the Holy See agreed, and Volken hopes the new prayer will work as well as the last one.
“Glacier is ice, ice is water, water is life,” intoned priest Toni Wenger, before beseeching God to stop the glaciers high above them from melting.
The pontiff is a vocal supporter of Global Warming Alarmists.
I pray that the latest endeavour of the faithful brings them a modicum of peace.
Modern science??
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/8/120810-glaciers-vatican-prayer-alps-science-gobal-warming/
Christopher Paino
Yes maybe human interpretations lead many to think “God is a human-made construct.” but it does not follow that “Without human minds there is no God.” Why should any God rely on such an idea?
Why is there any matter in the universe at all?
“an investigation into why there is matter left over in the universe, that is, why all the antimatter created in the Big Bang didn’t just cancel out the matter.”
Are those two things looking at the same thing?
With all due respect to the County of Sussex
Conservation laws are everywhere. If there is a local excess of matter then somewhere there is an excess of antimatter, probably in a universe of its own.
Do all universes have more matter than antimatter or is the overall sum zero?
Why is there any matter in the universe at all?
EASY ANSWER: “The reason why there is any matter in the universe at all is so matter coalesces in such a way to form living beings that ask the question.”
Matter, thus, is its own reason for being.
Why ask why? [rhetorical question]
Because. [rhetorical answer]
I always assumed it was a lab accident that one of the Boss’ assistants concealed rather than cleaned up.
If protons polarity can be edited can lead be transformed into gold by will?
Here’s another link that discusses this topic, maybe from a bit different perspective:
https://www.space.com/phase-transition-allowed-neutrinos-shuffle-matter.html
I would like to reply to a statement made above by Pat Frank, when he stated that “most of science is counter-intuitive.” I disagree strongly. Rather, those who have good intuitions can make good guesses about the way nature works. By definition, intuition is a direct jump between question an answer.