image: The rotation of the QCD axion (black ball) produces an excess of matter (colored balls) over antimatter, allowing galaxies and human beings to exist. view more
Credit: Co et al. Physical Review Letters (2020) and NASA
The fact that the Universe has more matter than antimatter is often referred to as "baryon asymmetry." The theoretical process behind this imbalance is "baryogenesis" and supposedly took place during the early cosmos. Now, a new paper postulates a mechanism called "axiogenesis," which suggests that the excess of matter over antimatter comes from a rotation of the axion field. Raymond Co and Keisuke Harigaya used a model to explore the physics behind the rotation of the quantum chromodynamics axion, a hypothetical particle that is also a dark matter candidate. The work could provide "new research avenues for model building and studies of associated phenomenology" according to the authors.
Raymond T. Co and Keisuke Harigaya
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Journal
Physical Review Letters