Physicists Observe Particles Switch Between Matter and Antimatter
For the first time, a particle has been shown to switch back and forth between matter and antimatter states. The discovery was made using the IHCD experiment at the large hadron collider and the particle in question is the so-called charm meson. All fundamental particles in nature have corresponding antiparticles. For example, the antimatter of the electron is the positron which has the same mass but opposite electric charge. Scientists have known for some time that charm meson, which a quark and an antiquark, can travel as a mixture of their particles and antiparticles states. This mixture is known as quantum superposition. Quantum superposition Result in two versions of the same particle, each with their own mass a heavier and a lighter version. The difference in mass is tiny, about 100 trillion trillionth of a gram, but it's this tiny difference that researchers have measured, confirming for the first time that the charm meson can oscillate betwee...