materieantimaterieongelijkheid

Materie-antimaterieongelijkheid refers to the observed asymmetry between the amount of matter and antimatter in the universe. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, the Big Bang should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter. When matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate each other, releasing energy. If the universe contained equal amounts of both, all of it should have annihilated long ago, leaving behind only radiation. However, the observable universe is overwhelmingly composed of matter.

This discrepancy, known as the baryon asymmetry problem, is one of the most significant unsolved mysteries in cosmology and particle physics. Several theories attempt to explain this imbalance. One prominent idea is that the conditions during the very early universe, shortly after the Big Bang, allowed for certain processes that favored the creation of matter over antimatter. These processes, known as baryogenesis, require at least three fundamental conditions, known as the Sakharov conditions, to be met: baryon number violation, C-symmetry and CP-symmetry violation, and departure from thermal equilibrium.

While the Standard Model incorporates CP-symmetry violation, it is not sufficient to explain the observed magnitude of the matter-antimatter asymmetry. Therefore, physicists are exploring physics beyond the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry or Grand Unified Theories, which could provide additional sources of CP violation or other mechanisms for baryogenesis. Experiments at particle accelerators and observations of the cosmic microwave background continue to search for evidence that could shed light on this fundamental puzzle.