When it comes down to it, we really don’t know much about antimatter. But the theories are endless!
Their best theory is actually a good one with it being, “the ‘standard model’ that describes how subatomic particles are supposed to behave. Antimatter is supposed to do everything that matter does, only backwards-and-in-high-heels and looks-the-same-except-with-a-goatee. (More formally this is called ‘CPT symmetry,’ […] which basically says that if you swap matter for antimatter and time is reversed, the new universe would be the same as the current one.)”
Scientists as a Swiss particle physics lab have made some strides in the field. They recently published results in Nature that if you freeze down antimatter to a very cold temperature, it makes it easier to study. And guess what? That means they get to shoot it with a laser!
If you think about it, motion creates heat. The photons from the laser hit the atom, from there the atom absorbs it, gets energy, then bounces it back out. The laser has to put out enough energy in the pulses so the cooling of antimatter doesn’t take forever.
Being able to slow down the antimatter gives so many possibilities for what scientists can discover. One theory they’re trying to prove is if antimatter actually echoes the physics of matter.
Breakthroughs like this are huge in experimental physics and now that they have more data to find out more, physicists are ready to dive into antimatter!
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