Author
Luis Grave de Peralta
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA.

ISBN 978-81-973195-2-5 (Print)
ISBN 978-81-973195-6-3 (eBook)
DOI: 10.9734/bpi/mono/978-81-973195-2-5

It is evident that living beings made of matter surround us. These living beings contain atoms with electrons and protons. However, there are not living beings made of antimatter surrounding us. This hypothetical living beings made of antimatter should contain antimatter atoms with positrons and antiprotons. Why does this biological matter-antimatter asymmetry exist? This work presents a surprisingly simple answer to this question. In short, this is a theoretical consequence of the introduction of special relativity in quantum mechanics. In addition, it is necessary to assume that both an electrically charged particle with mass and the corresponding antiparticle could interact electrically with itself. Finally, for breaking the theoretical matter-antimatter symmetry, it is necessary to postulate that a particle electrically interacts with itself differently than the corresponding antiparticle interacts with itself.

The question “where the biological antimatter is?” is not a trivial question. This is because its answer brings transcendental implications for our best physical theories. Fortunately, the answer to this question presented in this book coincides with our everyday experiences. Biological antimatter does not surround us because biological antimatter cannot exist. The author invites the readers to follow him through this exercise of scientific curiosity.  


Content


We are surrounded by living beings made of matter. However, no living beings made of antimatter have ever been observed. This looks like a huge wrong prediction of our best theories about the physical fundaments of our world. In this work, the author advances a possible explanation of this mystery. This work discusses how we could explain the everyday experience of the absence of biological antimatter in our world by maintaining the validity of relativistic quantum mechanics but adopting the idea that an electron like a positron could interact electrically with itself. For simplicity, the discussion is based on the solution of the Grave de Peralta equation for the infinity well. This is the simplest model for a spatially localized relativistic quantum particle with mass. A semiquantitative discussion of the consequences of adding the interaction of the quantum particle with itself is presented. The matter-antimatter symmetry is broken by postulating that a particle electrically interacts with itself in a different way than the corresponding antiparticle interacts with itself.