RITISH BOFFINS BAFFLED AS ANTIMATTER GOES MISSING

What can the antimatter be?

Particle physicists are puzzled by the mysterious disappearance of antimatter from the early universe. Space and time exploded into existence in the big bang,about 15 billion (that's 15,000,000,000) years ago. This enormous explosion created matter and antimatter in equal amounts. But somewhere along the line most of the antimatter disappeared, leaving the universe made almost entirely of matter. Physicists believe that they can explain where some, but not all, of the antimatter went. They are now working on several experiments which they hope will help explain what happened to the missing antimatter.

LEPHANT BELIEVED TO HOLD THE KEY

Pachyderm meets antimatter

BABAR is a large, multinational experiment which uses a particle accelerator called the B Factory, at SLAC, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California. The experiment is called BABAR because it produces particles of matter and antimatter, called B and Bbar mesons. The elephantine detector will allow physicists to study a mysterious process which goes by the name of CP-violation. The scientists believe that this process could be the key to explaining why the universe is made of matter. The large team of experimenters includes about 70 British particle physicists and engineers from 10 universities and laboratories.

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