Physicists have devised a theory that unifies two widely studied mysteries of the universe: why there is an imbalance between regular matter and anti-matter (scientists expect to see equal amounts of each, but observe less anti-matter), and the identity of “dark matter” – the enigmatic particles thought to account for the extra gravitational pull observed in distant galaxies.
“We propose that at some point in the very early universe, dark matter interacted with regular matter in a particular way so as to shift the balance between matter and anti-matter ever so slightly towards matter, a process known as baryogenesis,” said Jeff Jones, a University of California-Santa Cruz physicist involved in the work, to PhysOrg.com. “We have proposed a new mechanism for baryogenesis that ties together these two mysteries, which are usually assumed to be unrelated.”
The prefix “baryo” in baryogenesis comes from “baryon,” a class of particles made of three quarks. Protons and neutrons are the most common examples of baryons. By extension, ordinary matter – atoms, in other words, which are primarily protons and neutrons – is therefore essentially made of baryons. Similarly, anti-matter is mostly anti-baryons.
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