Despite its name, antimatter is literally matter.
Antimatter refers to a group of particles that have opposite electrical charges to their ordinary counterparts.
responsible cannot be directly observed.
An artist’s concept of the ALICE experiment and the Milky Way.Image: ORIGINS Cluster, Technical University Munich
Antimatter remains a matter of confusion (sorry, awful pun) for a few reasons.
An outstanding question in physics iswhat happened to all the antimatter.
The recent research focuses on another typeWeakly Interacting Massive Particles, or WIMPsas the guilty party.
Thats why these antinuclei are a plausible clue to WIMP annihilation.
In other words, even if WIMPs are responsible for dark matter, they dont tell the whole story.
WIMPs could be responsible for the antimatter detections that space-based detectors are collecting.
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