2024-08-04 09:47:20
Since 2011, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-2), installed inside the International Space Station (ISS), has recorded more than 200 billion cosmic ray events. And although most of the energetic particles we see are ‘normal’ and hit matter at the end of their long journeys through space, ten of them turn out to be anything but typical. In fact, they are a strange form of antimatter, antihelium nuclei that have pairs of antiprotons attached to one or two antineutrons. Something very difficult to explain with current physics models.
Therefore, due to their strangeness, the reports (none of them official) about these ten strange phenomena have led scientists to think that these particles can only be explained with other theories, that is , by applying to completely new physics that goes beyond the present.
Like a storm in the desert
Of course, 10 out of 200 billion extraterrestrial particles over 15 years may seem like a small thing, but in an article published in ‘Physical review DThe researchers, from the Perimeter Center for Scientific Physics in Canada and Johns Hopkins University in the United States, compared these studies to meeting a storm in the middle of the desert.
In their research, the authors think that it is possible that we are facing the emergence of a completely new physics, beyond the Standard Model, a great idea that for almost 80 years has divided the intimate components of matter and the laws that govern them. And they even go so far as to suggest that black matter may be involved in the matter.
The antimatter mystery
Every elementary particle of ‘ordinary’ matter, every electron, proton, neutron, neutrino or quark, has a counterpart, a kind of ‘mirror image’ that has, in reverse, the same characteristics except for one, the electric charge, which is the opposite. . It is what is known as an ‘antiparticle’.
In theory, antiparticles such as positrons, antineutrinos and antiquarks should have emerged from the Big Bang in a mass equal to their ‘partners’, the ‘normal’ electrons, neutrinos and quarks. And because of their opposite charges they should have canceled each other quickly (1 – 1 = 0) leaving behind a weak cloud of gamma rays.
But just look ‘up there’ to realize that that doesn’t happen, that everything we see in the Universe is ‘normal’ matter, and there is no trace of antimatter to match. Clearly, if we are here, it is because there is a ‘balance’ that leads to a problem. But we don’t know what that anomaly might be, which means there’s something there that we don’t understand.
Despite everything, antimatter, in small quantities, manifests itself under certain conditions, either in particle collisions here on Earth, or in nature, which continues to produce small amounts of antiprotons and antineutrons in events that massive, like the explosion of a star. But even in such extraordinary conditions, most of the antimatter particles are destroyed as soon as they are born when they meet the ‘alter egos’ of ordinary matter and cancel each other, although a small fraction of them will manage to escape and should. , occasionally clashing with Earth Explorer.
Rare antiparticles
And so we come to ten strange discoveries from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the ISS. Events involving antiprotons and antineutrons in the form of antihelium nuclei, a rare union that, to occur, would have required the antidotes to move slowly and also be assembled, the usual things did not happen.
Interestingly, for every antihelium nucleus with two antineutrons (an isotope called antihelium-4), researchers found two with one antineutron: antihelium-3. Which, based on established physics alone, can only happen at an isotope ratio of 10,000 to one.
Therefore, any process that creates two types of antimatter isotopes and sends them to our direction is not selective in the amount of antihelium as known processes, suggesting that the initial conditions include that the “blocks” subatomic building blocks ” those slowly before. is driving out.
Several possible scenarios
One possibility would be that the detector captures the decay of an unknown particle at present, perhaps even dark matter. But even if there is such a particle, the question remains how it comes to fly through the cosmos without colliding with anything and at a fraction of the speed of light.
Another possibility within the same scenario, the researchers note, is that the concentration of extraordinary heat and rapidly expanding plasma, made of known particles, is capable of generating both the right force and the ratio of worth of antihelium nuclei. The bad thing is that such ‘fireballs’ have never been observed, so it could also be that we are facing rare collisions between dark masses with sufficient quantities of antiquarks.
The possibility of ‘dark dwarfs’
The second possible scenario has to do with the so-called ‘black leprechauns’. These hypothetical balls of dark photons, dark electrons, and dark neutrons can also collide with each other to create conditions that can emit antihelium at exponential rates.
However, it should be noted that none of these models have been fully developed and there is considerable debate about possible explanations. And we’re talking about the only physics we know. And no one has been able to see dark matter directly, or fully understand how it works.
However, although very brave, the researchers’ efforts were not in vain. Who knows, in fact, maybe buried in the complex mathematics of his proposals he will not find the ‘seed’ that will allow us to uncover what could create those 10 strange antimatter particles. More discoveries by AMS-02 may help provide a clearer picture. Or they can also testify that something unexpected in the far field is teaching the opposition, mocking us from the far shadows.
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