In the last experiment carried out at Fermi Laboratories in the USA, physicists showed that the simulated antiquarks floating in the proton are more of the "down" type than "up". The new finding contradicts the results of the research conducted in the same laboratory in the 90s. In recent years, many evidences have been added to the breaking of the symmetry between matter and antimatter, and now the question arises, what is the model that will bring order?
Illustration of the proton from the inside
Symmetry in nature is seen by many as the ideal of beauty, but beyond the elegance and order it expresses, it serves as one of the cornerstones of theoretical physics. It is so significant that the laws of nature can be deduced and new phenomena can be predicted only given the revealed symmetries. Because of its importance, physicists are surprised to discover processes in which the equations indicate a clear symmetry, but nature "decides" to act in a way that breaks it.
To the surprise of the particles, In the last article Published in the prestigious journal Nature, the proton, the positively charged particle that makes up the nucleus of the atom, showed such an asymmetry. Researchers from the National Institute in the United States followed the signs indicating a surprising asymmetry with the help of an experiment carried out in the accelerators at Permilab. The results of the experiment even contradict those published in the 90s that denied the asymmetry in the proton.
The sea of quarks simulated in a proton
The proton is not an elementary particle in itself, it is actually made up of quarks. The quarks are elementary particles (at least according to what science knows today), meaning they cannot be broken down. Physicists have sorted the quarks into three "generations" and in each generation two "flavors". The word generation or taste has no meaning, it is just a method to categorize the quarks according to mass and electric charge. The proton, for example, consists of two "up" quarks and one "down" quark. Again, the names have no meaning at all. Besides the quarks, inside the proton float gluons that "glue" the three quarks to create the particle. But this is not the end of the story, in quantum we must not forget the vacuum, a fundamental element that fills all space. A vacuum that fills space sounds like a self-contradictory statement, but according to quantum theory the vacuum is merely synonymous with random fluctuations of the particle fields. Feynman described the oscillations as particles appearing out of nowhere (simulated particles) and disappearing instantly. Inside the proton, for example, gluons can emerge, decay into quarks and antiquarks and ionize (that is, come into contact with each other and convert the matter into pure energy - back into a gluon).
At this point, symmetry plays an essential role. According to the standard model, the laws of nature are symmetric between matter and antimatter (particles with the same mass but opposite charge), meaning that the equations we have imply that matter and antimatter obey the same laws. From this symmetry it follows that every simulated particle emerging from the vacuum must be accompanied by its antiparticle counterpart and that the probability of the appearance of the different flavors in the quark soup must be the same. Still, according to the results of the latest study, it seems that in the sea of gluons and simulated quarks inside the proton, more up-type antiquarks than down-type antiquarks are floating, regardless of momentum.
A meeting between simulated particles
In the 70s, theoretical physicist Sidney Daryl and Tan-Mo Yan proposed a method to measure the dynamics occurring inside the proton. In the experiment they proposed, protons are launched towards a target, i.e. towards a substance of a certain composition. During the encounter, the simulated quarks from the proton and the target mix, ionize and create photons (particles of light). The energetic photons decay and form ions and electrons according to the mass of the quarks that were ionized at the beginning of the process. From the ratio between the muons and the electrons created in the process, it is possible to measure the probability of the formation of the different flavors in the simulated soup inside the proton.
"We still don't have a full explanation for the quark dynamics occurring inside the proton. As a consequence of this, we do not have a sufficient explanation of how the proton acquires its properties", explains Paul Riemer, a researcher from the Oregon Institute. "The elusive nature of the quark and the antiquark make in-depth research difficult, but thanks to the latest experiment we saw asymmetry for the first time." "We are able to discern the subtle dynamics within the proton," added Don Gisman, one of the authors of the paper. "With the help of the last experiment, nature leads us to correct the known and known."
Rimmer adds that "we chose to measure the muons because they are able to penetrate through materials more easily than the other collision fragments". Between the target and the detector, the researchers added five meters of an iron wall to slow down the muons along the way.
The surprising research results present physicists with more questions than answers. These are piled up alongside other experiments conducted in recent years that indicate an asymmetry between matter and antimatter. The study of the structure of the proton helps researchers gather clues about the most burning questions in physics, but until these are answered, it turns out that there are also significant by-products - the study of the proton helped in the development of therapy against cancer with the help of proton radiation, deciphered the intensity of proton radiation in space travel and even helped in the study of star formation in the early universe.
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The lack of symmetry between matter and antimatter is particularly evident from the fact that the world predicted to us, and not just the Earth and its components, is made (almost) entirely of matter and not antimatter, even though the Big Bang is supposed to produce equal amounts (in a very good approximation) of both species. The accepted theory holds that the matter we see is what remains after the ionization of most of the products of the Big Bang, the ionization that explains (perhaps) the large content of energy in the "void" - or what we call "black energy" that acts as an "anti-gravitational" force and inflates the universe at a rate Growing.