Why did matter outnumber antimatter?

Question

Are there any theories as to why there was sightly more matter at the begging of the universe than antimatter?

And if there had been slightly more antimatter than matter... would it matter? lol

What I mean is could a universe much like our own form out of antimatter if Positrons and Antiprotons had won out in the beginning?

Answer 1

Of course there's no way to know these things for certain, at least based upon current science. However, one might speculate about it.  Everything in nature, including the universe and life itself, has its effective origins in the minuscule undulations at the singularity of the big-bang. It was the rapid expansion and cooling along with various phase transitions that eventually led to our current realm.  To attempt to answer your question: in all likelihood, it was an asymmetry in the rapid expansion of these minuscule fluctuations that resulted in an imbalance between then, matter and antimatter. Had the expansion been uniformly symmetrical, no matter or anitmatter would exist and the universe would be totally empty, lightless, and void.

Now, had antimatter exceeded matter, reality might have turned out to be very different than what we experience.

See: The Early Universe: Toward the Beginning of Time

http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr...

Answer 2

I don't think they really know why it was that way other than that it was, and that's the reason why we have so much more matter than anti-matter. Just one extra proton for every couple of thousand anti protons is enough to explain all the matter in the universe today.

Anti-matter seems weird to us because we're made of matter, but if we were comprised of today's anti-matter the definitions might have even been switched! In quantum mechanics, that kind of stuff is relative.

Answer 3

This is one of the top questions scientists don't have a good answer for.

Answer 4

Last I heard, we don't know.

Don't be so sure that it did, .... except locally.

There's a lot of universe forever beyond our ken where

anti-matter might predominate.

Answer 5

and welcome to one of the single greatest questions astronomy and physics has ever come across.

some suggest that the asymmetry is an illusion or is exaggerated. after all, an antimatter galaxy wouldnt have any characteristics that differed from ours (from a distance that is)

other have suggested that antimatter and matter were created almost equally, and when they annihilated eachother in the hadron epoch and the lepton epoch, matter had a small amount of particles more than antimatter. and what we have now is that very very slight majority.

but the solution i agree with is the slightly newer one. its always been thought that particle decays would have a chance to yield matter or antimatter. now some particles are starting to be found (mostly mesons) that decay in ways that heavily favor matter over antimatter. along with that, it has been found that matter and antimatter particle can decay at different rates. for example, particles called antikaons decay slightly faster than kaons. which would give rise to an exponentially increasing population of matter over antimatter, which would eventually taper off as the amount of antimatter reached near 0.

EDIT: i just read a strange theory. its called leptogenesis. it theorizes that at the beginning of the universe there was a new kind of neutrino, ive just heard it called the heavy neutrino. when it decays it favors neutrinos over antineutrinos. those neutrinos are still heavier yet than normal neutrinos, so they decay into protons and antiprotons. but since the original balance of neutrinos to antineutrinos was off, so is the balance of protons to antiprotons. they go out of their way to say that it is entirely speculative, but its interesting none the less.

Answer 6

Thats just what our universe is made of so for all we know there could be a universe made entirely of antimatter.

Answer 7

I feel that that's why they, astrophysicists, astronomers, and other scientists are now doing much research.

Yes, I feel that there are probably theories as to "why" this/that there is/ was more matter than antimatter however, the cost of producing antimatter is astronomical.

Have you ever had a pet scan, well a pet scan of ones brain encompasses the use of what little antimatter that is produced.  

Dr. Michio Kaku who is a scientist and also an author has considered this matter and had much to say about the matter, as it were.

Answer 8

As far as i know there is no theory to why more matter was created then antimatter at the time of the big bang.  I currently have a subscription to astronomy magazine and i have read many articles in it that say that question is one of astronomy's biggest mysteries, and it is still baffling scientists, and as to your other question, I'll answer it with a question, if there was no matter, only antimatter, would it still be considered antimatter?