This Hidden Structure Within the Building Blocks of Atoms May Dictate the Imbalance Between Matter and Antimatter

New evidence suggests that the structure that holds protons together also dictates the quantum property that separates matter from antimatter. The STAR Collaboration of physicists has provided new evidence for a decades-old theory, revealing that the baryon number—essentially the count of baryons in a particle—is determined by a gluonic structure called a baryon junction. The researchers observed that the baryon number was easier to move than the electric charge during particle collisions, indicating that the quarks are not the sole factors in determining the baryon number. The findings support the hypothesis that the baryon junction's gluon field is responsible for the baryon number, challenging the traditional view that this number is dictated by the quarks themselves.

The study was conducted at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, where physicists collided heavy ions at near-light speeds. The experiments tracked the baryon numbers of protons, which were separated from their electric charge during particle collisions. In every instance, the results agreed with the baryon junction model, showing that the baryon number was transported over a distance without correlating with expectations of the quark model. This finding suggests that the structure of the proton is more complex than previously thought, influenced by the gluon field rather than just the quarks.

The implications of this research are significant, as it may explain the matter-antimatter imbalance in the universe. The study, titled “Tracking the Baryon Number with Nuclear Collisions,” was published in Science on August 13, 2026. The research provides insight into how the fundamental building blocks of matter—protons and neutrons—are organized at the subatomic level, potentially shedding light on the origins of the universe's matter-antimatter asymmetry.

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