Significant New Experimental Clue Relating to Universe Formation

Researchers at the Fermilab Tevatron collider have conducted proton collision experiments in which the parity between matter and antimatter is violated, slightly in favor of matter.  During the formation of the Universe after the Big Bang, an as yet unknown process led to baryogenesis – the creation of baryonic matter which forms the basis of all matter in the Universe.  This present experiment is highly significant in that it is the first observed experimental evidence of a parity-violating physical process capable of producing sufficient amounts of matter to account for the Universe we inhabit today.  Prior to this there have only existed theories which predict parity violation at very low levels – not sufficient to result in enough matter to form our Universe.

The implication of this experiment, if it holds up under further verification, is that the present Standard Model to describe reality is insufficient and is missing some important elements.  According to the article “…the truly exciting implication is that the experiment implies that there is new physics, beyond the widely accepted Standard Model, that must be at work. If that’s the case, major scientific developments lie ahead.”

This, along with a resent reassessment of the WMAP survey of cosmic background radiation the result of which casts serious doubt upon the existence of dark energy to explain the accelerating expansion of the Universe, is highly significant as a lot of the accepted models that have been used for a long time may have to be fundamentally reworked.