The Big Bang
didn't just result in our familiar universe, according to a mind-bending new
theory - it also generated a second "anti-universe" that extended
backwards in time, like a mirror image of our own.
A new story
in Physics World explores the new theory, which was proposed by a trio of
Canadian physicists who say that it could explain the existence of dark matter.
The new
theory, which is laid out in a recent paper in the journal Physical Review of
Letters, aims to preserve a rule of physics called CPT symmetry. In the
anti-universe before the Big Bang, it suggests, time ran backwards and the
cosmos were made of antimatter instead of matter.
This new
theory is compelling, according to a news release about the new theory, because
it would mean that the universe is filled with "very massive sterile
neutrinos" that could explain dark matter, a mysterious material that is
believed to make up much of the universe.
By the
researchers' own admission, according to Physics World, many details of the new
theory still need to be hammered out. But co-author Neil Turok, of the
Perimetery Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario, argued in an interview
with the publication that the new theory is a strong one because it relies only
on known particles and fields, instead of assuming that new ones will be
discovered in the future.
"There is this frame of mind that you explain a new phenomenon by inventing a new particle or field," he told Physics World. "I think that may turn out to be misguided."
Comments
Post a Comment