We are all familiar with matter around us. From the food we eat, the air we breathe to living in buildings and vehicles we drive, they all comprise of matter. But have you ever wondered about anti-matter? The answer is yes. They do exist.
It is often said by scientists that the big bang produced both matter and anti-matter in equal numbers. Anti-matter has all the properties opposite to matter. Like the antiparticle of an electron would have the opposite charge i.e. positive charge and opposite rotation with the same mass.
One thing to note is that if both matter and anti-matter meet then they annihilate each other i.e. they cancel out each other releasing a certain amount of energy. Antimatter is already being produced in many labs like CERN etc but to our dismay, it is only produced in minute quantities. So, it becomes difficult for the scientists to study such entities properly. Hence, not much has been discovered related to their properties. Even it remains to be seen that how does gravity affect anti-matter. Some say that like matter falls down due to the action of gravity, antimatter will fall up i.e. will move upwards(in opposite direction of gravity).
Since the big bang produced an equal amount of matter and anti-matter. Hence that would have meant that all matter and anti-matter would have annihilated each other and nothing would have existed. But as of now, we see matter existing around us. This makes scientists curious to study the properties of anti-matter by noticing the differences between matter and anti-matter.
Regards,
Anirban Dhar
AEIE, 2nd year
Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata
Sources: https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/april-2015/ten-things-you-might-not-know-about-antimatter
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