The Big Bang theory has a Big Problem. The leading models of cosmology imply that the universe should have begun with equal quantities of matter and antimatter. But when the two meet, they annihilate each other, so an equal balance would have yielded an empty cosmos. In May, physicists at the Tevatron particle accelerator in Illinois singled out a strange particle that could help explain the conundrum.
Studying nearly eight years’ worth of high-speed smashups between protons and antiprotons, Guennadi Borissov of Lancaster University in the U.K. and other members of the Tevatron team focused on the B meson, a short-lived particle that emerges from the collisions. During its brief life, this particle rapidly oscillates between matter and antimatter: One moment it’s a B meson, the next it’s an anti-B meson. This constant wavering should create just as many anti-B mesons as B mesons, but the physicists discovered a clear ...
