Each particle has its matching antiparticle. When the two collide, they annihilate each other—in the process creating energy that is then emitted into the universe.
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Anti-particle Term Timeline in A Brief History of Time
The timeline below shows where the term Anti-particle appears in A Brief History of Time. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...antielectrons or positrons. This later lead to his Nobel Prize. Indeed, every particle has an anti-particle, it is now known, and the two can cancel each other out.
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...can also create unstable particles, such as mesons, which are made when quarks join with antiquarks. These fit the no color rule (they are white, e.g. because a red particle joins...
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...reverse process—the production of quarks and protons. If there were regions of anti-matter (made of anti-particles), there would be a lot of radiation given off at the border with other regions,...
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...obey certain kinds of symmetries. Symmetry C refers to the laws applying to particles and anti-particles in the same way. Symmetry P is the laws being the same in a mirror...
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...force also does not obey the symmetry C, meaning it would cause a universe of anti-particles to not behave like our own. But it does obey the combined CP symmetry—meaning a...
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...universe expands and cools, forces that do not obey the symmetry of T cause more anti-electrons to become quarks than electrons to become anti-quarks, creating the matter we see today. Of...
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Chapter 8
...are produced, while at lower temperatures they are more likely to annihilate with their corresponding anti-particles. Thus, as the universe cools, fewer particles are created.
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...the universe would have been made up of photons, electrons, and neutrinos, along with their anti-particles, and some protons and neutrons. As the universe cooled, electron and anti-electron pairs would annihilate...
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Chapter 9
...obey the combined symmetries of C, P, and T. C refers to particles acting as anti-particles do. P refers to their mirror image. T refers to reversing time. Scientific laws will...
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Chapter 10
...C, P, and T symmetries, a particle going backward in time could be considered an anti-particle going forward in time. For example, black holes “emit” particles, where one component of a...
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