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Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) discovered the heaviest particle of antimatter for the first time — antihyperhelium-4. The discovery could help unravel the mystery of the matter-antimatter asymmetry that explains why ordinary matter dominates the universe. Antimatter is the "mirror partner" of ordinary matter, and when they collide, they annihilate each other, releasing energy. Theoretically, matter and antimatter should have formed in equal amounts after the Big Bang, but there is much more ordinary matter in the universe.
Antihyperhelium-4, composed of two antipositrons, an antiproton, an antineutron and an antilambda particle. It is formed by collisions of heavy ions, such as lead nuclei, in the Large Hadron Collider. These collisions simulate the state of matter that existed a millionth of a second after the Big Bang, when the universe was filled with "quark-gluon plasma".
Photo: Janik Ditzel for the ALICE collaboration
The discovery was made possible by the ALICE detector, one of the LHC's nine experiments. Researchers first identified antihyperhelium-4 by its decay into other particles. Machine learning was used to analyze the data, which significantly outperformed conventional search methods. This discovery not only confirms the existence of new antimatter particles, but also makes it possible to investigate the fundamental properties of the universe. The results showed that matter and antimatter are produced in equal amounts under laboratory conditions similar to those in the early stages of space development.
Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) discovered the heaviest particle of antimatter for the first time — antihyperhelium-4. The discovery could help unravel the mystery of the matter-antimatter asymmetry that explains why ordinary matter dominates the universe. Antimatter is the "mirror partner" of ordinary matter, and when they collide, they annihilate each other, releasing energy. Theoretically, matter and antimatter should have formed in equal amounts after the Big Bang, but there is much more ordinary matter in the universe.
Antihyperhelium-4, composed of two antipositrons, an antiproton, an antineutron and an antilambda particle. It is formed by collisions of heavy ions, such as lead nuclei, in the Large Hadron Collider. These collisions simulate the state of matter that existed a millionth of a second after the Big Bang, when the universe was filled with "quark-gluon plasma".
Photo: Janik Ditzel for the ALICE collaboration
The discovery was made possible by the ALICE detector, one of the LHC's nine experiments. Researchers first identified antihyperhelium-4 by its decay into other particles. Machine learning was used to analyze the data, which significantly outperformed conventional search methods.
This discovery not only confirms the existence of new antimatter particles, but also makes it possible to investigate the fundamental properties of the universe
. The results showed that matter and antimatter are produced in equal amounts under laboratory conditions similar to those in the early stages of space development.
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