A Bold New Study Suggests Our Universe May Be Partnered With And Mirror An Antimatter Universe

In the fascinating and ever-changing world of physics, things are always evolving, and now a new study has suggested that our universe may be partnered with a mirror universe which, in this case, could be an antimatter universe. This antimatter universe may also be heading backwards to a time that existed before the Big Bang, making things all the more tantalizing.

As Physics World reports, the new cosmological model which has our universe paired with an antimatter universe and also preserves CPT symmetry would go a long way in explaining dark matter.

While standard cosmological models have demonstrated that the universe sprung into being around 14 billion years ago, slowly cooling as it continued its vast expansion, Neil Turok from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario explained that this model relies on certain parameters that may or may not be correct, which includes rapid expansion.

“There is this frame of mind that you explain a new phenomenon by inventing a new particle or field. I think that may turn out to be misguided.”

Turok and fellow Perimeter Institute physicist Latham Boyle decided to create their own completely new model of the universe, which includes us mirroring an antimatter universe, by seeking to explain all observable phenomena around us only with fields and particles that physicists currently know to exist and without inventing any new ones. For instance, Turok and Boyle chose a model of the universe which always obeys CPT symmetry.

Our universe could be the mirror image of an antimatter universe extending backwards in time before the Big Bang https://t.co/VNlpWwatY0

— Physics World (@PhysicsWorld) January 3, 2019

What this means is that physical processes must remain constant and exactly the same, and this fundamental principle cannot change, whether time is reversed or even if particles are completely replaced by antiparticles. However, Turok notes that this isn’t actually how things are around us in the observable universe where space continues to expand as time marches ahead, and where there is much more matter around us than antimatter.

In an abstract of the new study, Turok suggests that the only way this particular symmetry would work is if our universe was paired with an antimatter universe which extends to the Big Bang, growing ever larger.

“We propose that the state of the Universe does not spontaneously violate CPT. Instead, the Universe after the big bang is the CPT image of the Universe before it, both classically and quantum mechanically. The pre and postbang epochs comprise a universe-antiuniverse pair, emerging from nothing directly into a hot, radiation-dominated era. CPT symmetry selects a unique QFT vacuum state on such a spacetime, providing a new interpretation of the cosmological baryon asymmetry, as well as a remarkably economical explanation for the cosmological dark matter.”

While Turok noted that the new model of the universe still has a lot of work left and will have many naysayers, he admitted that even before having the new study published there were plenty of discussions with colleagues about the cosmic microwave background and the temperatures which fluctuate there.

“They said you have to explain the fluctuations and we said that is a work in progress. Eventually they gave in.”

The new study which suggests that our universe has an antimatter partner universe has been published in Physical Review Letters.