By Peter Weiss
Scientists searching for the Achilles’ heel that wiped out antimatter have taken a big step, but they’re not yet certain where they’re headed.
The researchers want to know why the universe today appears to contain almost no antimatter, although presumably, in the Big Bang, both matter and antimatter formed in equal quantities.
Studies of the decay of particles and antiparticles known as B mesons promise vital clues. So, scientists in Japan and California have built electronpositron colliders, called B factories, for making B mesons and exploring their breakdowns (SN: 5/29/99, p. 342).