11.7 Evolution of the early universe  (Page 4/10)

Despite the observed dominance of matter over antimatter in the universe, the Standard Model of particle interactions and experimental measurement suggests only small differences in the ways that matter and antimatter interact. For example, neutral kaon decays produce only slightly more matter than antimatter. Yet, if through such decay, slightly more matter than antimatter was produced in the early universe, the rest could annihilate pair by pair, leaving mostly ordinary matter to form the stars and galaxies. In this way, the vast number of stars we observe may be only a tiny remnant of the original matter created in the Big Bang.

Dark matter and dark energy

In the last two decades, new and more powerful techniques have revealed that the universe is filled with dark matter    . This type of matter is interesting and important because, currently, scientists do not know what it is! However, we can infer its existence by the deflection of distant starlight. For example, if light from a distant galaxy is bent by the gravitational field of a clump of dark matter between us and the galaxy, it is possible that two images of the same galaxy can be produced ( [link] ). The bending of light by the gravitational field of matter is called gravitational lensing. In some cases, the starlight travels to an observer by multiple paths around the galaxy, producing a ring ( [link] ).

Based on current research, scientist know only that dark matter is cold, slow moving, and interacts weakly with ordinary matter. Dark matter candidates include neutralinos (partners of Z bosons, photons, and Higgs bosons in “supersymmetry theory”) and particles that circulate in tiny rings set up by extra spatial dimensions.

Increasingly precise astronomical measurements of the expanding universe also reveal the presence of a new form of energy called dark energy    . This energy is thought to explain larger-than-expected values for the observed galactic redshifts for distant galaxies. These redshifts suggest that the universe is not only expanding, but expanding at an increasing rate. Virtually nothing is known about the nature and properties of dark energy. Together, dark energy and dark matter represent two of the most interesting and unsolved puzzles of modern physics. Scientists attribute $68.3\text{\%}$ of the energy of the universe to dark energy, $26.8\text{\%}$ to dark matter, and just $4.9\text{\%}$ to the mass-energy of ordinary particles ( [link] ). Given the current great mystery over the nature of dark matter and dark energy, Isaac Newton’s humble words are as true now as they were centuries ago:

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”