Physicists Confirm The Existence Of A New Atomic Nucleus, Could Unravel The Biggest Mysteries In Theoretical Physics

Physicists have discovered a pear-shaped nucleus that can solve the biggest mysteries in theoretical physics. This may answer the question, "Where is all the dark matter?" It could also explain why travelling backwards in time might be impossible.

Marcus Scheck from the University of the West of Scotland explained that they have found these nuclei literally point towards a direction in space. He further explained that this links to a direction in time, proving there's a well-defined direction in time and they will always travel from the past to present as noted by Science Alert.

The study was printed in Physical Review Letters. The researchers said that the nuclei of atoms could be one of these three shapes namely spherical, discus or rugby ball. The shapes are fashioned by the distribution of electrical charge within a nucleus. They are determined by the particular combinations of protons and neutrons in a particular type of atom, whether it's a hydrogen atom, a zinc atom or a complex isotope created in a lab.

They further explained that the common factor across all three shapes is their symmetry and this joins nicely with a theory in a particle, which is referred to as CP-Symmetry. This is the amalgamation of two symmetries that are thought to exist in the Universe. They are the P-Symmetry and C-Symmetry.

Ethan Siegel from It Starts with a Bang explained that your left hand and your right-hand exhibit P-Symmetry from one another: if you point your thumb up and curl your fingers, your left and right hands mirror one another. He further explained that in particle physics, if you have a spinning clockwise and decaying upwards, its antiparticle should spin counterclockwise and fall off upwards 100 percent of the time if CP is conserved. If not, CP is violated.

C-symmetry is the symmetry of physical laws under a charge-conjugation transformation. The gravity, electromagnetism and the strong interaction all obey C-symmetry. On the other hand, the weak interactions violate C-symmetry.

In P-Symmetry or also referred to as Parity Transformation, the spatial coordinates that describe the system can be inverted through the point of origin. The x, y and z coordinates can be replaced with -x, -y and -z.

The law of physics stated that at the time of the Big bang, equal amounts of matter and antimatter had to have been created. But today, billions of years later, people are surrounded by heaps of matter. These include plasma, solid, liquid and gas. On the other hand, there appears to be almost no naturally occurring antimatter.

Gianluca Sarri from Queen's University Belfast and a mathematician said that this is a puzzling feature, as the theory of relativistic quantum mechanics indicates that they should have equal amounts of the two. He further said that no current model of physics can explain the discrepancy.

In regards to the atomic nuclei shapes, the researchers explained that most of their fundamental theories of physics are based on symmetry. On the other hand, in 2013 study, the physicists found an asymmetrical pear-shaped nucleus in the isotope Radium-224 was a surprised. This is because it implied that nuclei could have more mass at one end than the other.

Recently, this has been confirmed by a second study, which showed that the nucleus of the isotope Barium-144 is also asymmetrical and pear-shaped. The study also indicated that the Universe might not as symmetrical as the Standard Model of Physics needs it to be and proving that could lead the researchers into a whole new era of theoretical physics.

What is the link of the discovery with time travel? Scheck said that this unequal distribution of mass and charge causes Barium-144's nucleus to 'point' in a certain direction in space-time. This bias could also explain why time seems to only want to go from the past to present and not backwards, even if the laws of physics don't tend which way it goes.