Now that the anti-hydrogen has been created, the Harvard team still must travel to Geneva to create more of it to study. They now hope to determine whether antihydrogen and hydrogen—and analogously, antimatter and matter—are exact mirror images of each other, or if other differences exist between the two.
If there are other differences, the notion of a perfect, symmetric universe espoused by physicists will no longer be accurate, having revolutionary implications on scientists’ understanding of the physical world.
“If we find any unexpected differences at all between anti-matter and matter, it will require a fundamental reform of basic physics theories,” says
Gabrielse. “And that intrigues me.”
—Staff writer Nura A. Hossainzadeh can be reached at hossainz@fas.harvard.edu.