“The Case of the Missing Antimatter” to be solved at Saturday Morning Physics at Syracuse University

“The Case of the Missing Antimatter” to be solved at Saturday Morning Physics at Syracuse UniversityJanuary 31, 2003Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Editor’s Note: Information about the lecture series can be found on the Web at http://www.phy.syr.edu/saturday/.

Scientific sleuths from Syracuse University’s Department of Physics in The College of Arts and Sciences will present “The Case of the Missing Antimatter” Feb. 8 at 10:30 a.m., in the Physics Building’s Stolkin Auditorium. The mysterious case is part of the Spring 2003 Saturday Morning Physics lecture series and is free and open to the public.

The lectures are designed for all those people who have ever wondered how the world around them works – or wanted to know what physics professors do when not teaching. The lectures include demonstrations, which help the lay audience understand the concepts that are being discussed, and a question and answer period.

“Missing Antimatter” will feature a presentation by faculty experts in experimental particle physics, who will explain how the research they are doing may someday further the understanding of a fundamental cosmological conundrum-why does the universe seem to contain all matter and almost no antimatter?

Presenting scientists will be professors Marina Artuso, Steven Blusk, Tomasz Skwarnicki, Sheldon Stone and J.C. Wang. Their research focuses on the decays of the charm and beauty quarks and on learning why these particles behave in different ways to their antiparticles. The answers they seek are crucial to unraveling the secrets of the physics of elementary particles and may someday help resolve the mystery behind how the universe was formed.