Scientists have been studying antimatter by producing, storing,
& colliding small quantities
at laboratories for decades and resulted in the following
elementary particles & force carriers:
| |
|
Matter |
Force
Carriers |
Antimatter
(AMatter) |
|
|
|
Quarks |
t+2/3
top |
c+2/3
charm |
u+2/3
up |
γ
photon
|
Au-2/3
Aup |
Ac-2/3
Acharm |
At-2/3
Atop |
b-1/3
bottom |
s-1/3
strange |
d-1/3
down |
g
gluons
|
Ad+1/3
Adown |
As+1/3
Astrange |
Ab+1/3
Abottom |
|
AQuarks |
|
Leptons |
ντ
tau neutrino |
νμ
muon
neutrino |
νe
electron neutrino |
Z
Z boson
|
Aνe
Aelectron neutrino |
Aνμ
Amuon
neutrino |
Aντ
Atau
neutrino |
τ-
tau |
μ-
muon |
e-
electron |
W -
W+
W boson |
e+
positron |
Aμ+
Amuon |
Aτ+
Atau |
|
ALeptons |
| |
| III |
II |
I |
Families
|
I |
II |
III |
|
|
The
Standard
Model unified electromagnetic & the weak forces into the electroweak
force. This unification was comparable to electric & magnetic forces into electromagnetic
theory by J.C. Maxwell in the 19th century. Note the symmetry that exist
between the matter & antimatter elementary particles. Protons &
neutrons are composed of up and down quarks.
|
Matter |
Antimatter
(AMatter) |
Proton contains 2
up & 1 down quark.
Neutron contains 1 up & 2 down quarks |
Anti-proton
contains 2 Aup & 1 Adown quarks.
Anti-neutron contains 1 Aup & 2 Adown quarks |
Experimenters at Fermilab
are conducting research to find the Higgs boson(s) that gives the
particles mass.
From matter/antimatter asymmetry
experiments, scientists have determined that there is a billion (1,000,000,000) times more matter than
antimatter. In our solar system, this equates to 2x1018
metric tons of antimatter or two billion
comets (1
kilometer in diameter). Since there are only several hundreds of comets rather
than billions, the quantity of antimatter is about a million times less than
expected.
|