Monday, April 05, 2021

[tkvbxjfv] matter-antimatter balance at heat death

currently there is more matter than antimatter in the universe.  however, someday, all protons (and neutrons) will have decayed, and all black holes will have evaporated via Hawking radiation, leaving, as the end result of both of those processes, only photons.  (electrons annihilate with the positrons produced by proton decay, producing photons.)  matter-antimatter pairs might spontaneously pop into existence, but such reactions always produce matter and antimatter in equal proportions.  (or do they?)

because photons are their own antiparticle, at the heat death of the universe, matter and antimatter will (again) finally be balanced (just as Thanos would have wanted, and this outcome is inevitable).  some may quibble about the balance being achieved by having zero on both sides.

matter and antimatter are slowly coming into balance even now.  how many more protons than antiprotons decay each second in the observable universe?

(oops forgot about neutrinos and anti-neutrinos.)  (there may also remain Planck-size black hole remnants; unclear whether to characterize them as matter or antimatter.)

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