The only way for there to ever be enough antimatter in the cosmos as matter would be through the total annihilation of the universe. 

While this is not the case, it leads to one of the greatest mysteries in the formation of our universe.

The answer to why there is more matter than antimatter is unknown, but ISU researchers are on the case, hoping their recent experiments will shed some light on what happened near the beginning of the universe.

“The universe, as we understand it today, is completely dominated by matter,” said Mayly Sanchez, associate professor of physics and astronomy. “So something must have happened between the Big Bang and us that made the asymmetry between matter and antimatter happen.” 

Sanchez and her team believe a certain fundamental particle may be to blame — the neutrino. Neutrinos are numerous, tiny, neutral particles that hardly interact with the environment around them.

They have three types: muon, electron and tau. As neutrinos travel, they may turn into another type of neutrino in an event called neutrino oscillation, which Sanchez and her team emphasizes in their study.

Studying neutrino oscillation is a step toward understanding neutrinos and possibly linking them to the reason for the tip in the balance between matter and antimatter.

This is where the NOvA experiment comes into play. This giant system spans from Fermilab in Chicago to northern Minnesota. A beam of neutrinos is shot out from Fermilab to a detector in Minnesota that stands as the largest plastic structure in the world.

The detector is able to pick up on signals that tell scientists when neutrino oscillation occurs.

“What we do is analyze the data from the detectors to let us understand the properties of neutrinos better,” said Erika Catano, graduate assistant in physics and astronomy who works with Sanchez.

The detector is made up of numerous plastic cells arranged in vertical and horizontal positions. The cells are filled with mineral oil and a light-emitting substance known as a scintillator.

When particles go through the cells, the scintillator produces light. The light ends up at a photodetector and is converted into a readable electronic signal.

Sanchez and her team then analyze the results to uncover the secrets of neutrinos — secrets they hope will reveal some of the earlier processes in the universe.

Some scientists believe heavier types of neutrinos once existed, but are no longer present. Unraveling the secrets of the universe is no easy task.

“To study neutrinos today gives us an answer, or at least a hint as to how things happened in the beginning of the universe,” Sanchez said.