[PHYSICS | Week #5] Symmetry + Super Symmetry

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CP violation

CP or "charge parity" is the theoretical symmetry of matter and anti-matter; charge conjugation and parity.  "C is the symmetry between positive and negative charge, while P is the symmetry of spatial coordinates." CP is violated if there is a difference between the ways nature treats matter and antimatter. An article in Symmetry Magazine discusses an example of CP violation in relation to the Big Bang:

"The Big Bang should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, with subsequent annihilation leaving neither behind. And yet, the observable universe has about 10 billion galaxies that consist entirely of matter (protons, neutrons and electrons) with no antimatter (antiprotons, antineutrons and positrons).  Very soon after the Big Bang, some forces must have caused the CP violation that skewed the equality in the number of matter and antimatter particles and left behind excess matter"



My take away from this example is that CP violation is the when matter is asymmetrical or imbalanced so to speak. I know that when symmetrical matter and antimatter collide, they create a violent burst of energy. What happens when the matter and antimatter are asymmetrical? Is it more dangerous? Have physicists figured out a way to measure CP violation? 

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