Evidence is mounting that such an event actually occurred

Mar 1, 2012 15:31 GMT  ·  By
Particle accelerators can help us determine why the Universe is made up of normal matter
   Particle accelerators can help us determine why the Universe is made up of normal matter

One of the things I've always found fascinating about the Big Bang theory is that normal matter as we know it should not exist. The reason why it does has puzzled scientists for many years, but now they are beginning to believe that an antimatter anomaly occurred in the extremely young Universe.

When the Cosmos appeared, equal amounts of matter and antimatter were produced. They should have annihilated each other completely, but obviously did not. Some physicists believe that subtle differences between the properties of the two forms of matter may account for this.

The technical term for this difference is charge-parity (CP) violation. While instances when this occurs have been observed for years, the differences were too small to account for the amount of normal matter that exists in the Universe today, Science Now reports.

When the LHC resumes its studies, later this year, scientists will follow up on a lead discovered last year, which they say may indicate a higher-order CP violation, which may explain why we exist. Pretty neat, huh?!