According to the laws of physics, the world should not exist. To explain why we're here, scientists are re-creating the universe's fiery beginnings by pitting matter against antimatter and watching them annihilate (popsci.com). Antimatter, an elusive type of matter [Buddhist, rupa] that's rare in the universe, has now been trapped for more than 16 minutes -- an eternity in particle physics.
In fact, scientists who've been trapping antihydrogen atoms at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva say isolating the exotic particles has become so routine that they expect to soon begin experiments on this rare substance.
Antimatter is like a mirror image of matter. For every matter particle (a hydrogen atom, for example), a matching antimatter particle is thought to exist (in this case, an antihydrogen atom) with the same mass, but the opposite charge.
"We've trapped antihydrogen atoms for as long as 1,000 seconds, which is forever" in the world of high-energy particle physics, said Joel Fajans, a University of California, Berkeley professor of physics who is a faculty scientist at California's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a member of the ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus) experiment at CERN.
All matter (gross and fine, sensual and supersensual) is subordinate to mind; yet, mind and matter are interdependent everywhere except the four immaterial (arupa) planes, which are mind only. See Buddhist cosmology's 31 Planes of Existence.
Trapping antimatter is difficult, because when it comes into contact with matter, the two annihilate each other. So a container for antimatter can't be made of regular matter, but is usually formed with magnetic fields. More
Strange Quarks and Muons, Oh my! Nature's tiniest particles dissected
Wacky Physics: The coolest little particles in nature
Twisted Physics: 7 mind-blowing findings
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