Antimatter is uncommon, but it’s not exactly rare. Antiparticles - especially those generated by cosmic radiation - are all around us, all the time. But just what is it doing here? As we discuss, the role of antimatter is fundamentally tied to our experience of reality.

Where do we draw the line between Outreach and Clickbait?

Novel technology and perhaps physics awaits us if we’re brave enough to build one.

Particle Physics is a source of more than just fascinating questions. Today we give four important reasons why we should build another particle collider. Share these four reasons with someone, especially if they aren't bought in!

A realistic, pragmatic look at the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and what might remain to be seen.

Searching for antimatter in the wild reveals a bit more than we expected. But only a bit. Are pulsars to blame? or is it Dark Matter?

Are there antineutrini out there? Yes, surely. But, a better question is what are antineutrini?

Like the antiproton, the antineutron is a composite particle made up of antiquarks. It looks a lot like the neutron, and that’s pretty interesting because both of those particles have no electric charge!

Virtual pions and gluons and other quantum effects are all dressed up in the antiproton package around three valance antiquarks. That’s two anti-up quarks and one anti-down quark. The antiproton looks virtually identical to the proton - except that it has a negative electric charge.

The positron is the antiparticle partner to the electron. Like the electron, positrons are stable. They do not decay. But of course, we don’t see may of them around.

Introducing Season 3!

Planetary scientist Jean-Philippe Combe joints us to discuss the how cosmic rays and particles from the solar wind impact and affect the surface of the moon.

When ice forms it traps air molecules with it. Ancient ice, trapped deep in glaciers near the Earth's poles can give us a record of what the atmosphere was like thousands - if not millions - of years ago. But only if we can calibrate the relationship between time and depth. Unlike sunlight, muons from cosmic rays can penetrate deep into this glacial ice, complicating this just a little bit.

Muons are all around us. Virtually all of them are the debris associated to collisions of cosmic rays from the upper atmosphere. We discuss why muons are present, and how their presence is a direct validation of Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity.

To explain the origin of cosmic rays, we discuss how out-of-equilibrium plasma physics can boost ions to extremely high velocities.

The Cosmic Ray mini-series begins with the OH MY GOD! Particle.

The Omega Baryon is the strangest particle we have encountered so far. It may also be the strangest particle known to Science, literally.

Prepare for trouble! And make it double! Today we confront the two Cascade or Xi /ksee/ baryons which each have a PAIR of strange quarks.

The Field Guide to Particle Physics : Season 2https://pasayten.org/the-field-guide-to-particle-physics©2022 The Pasayten Institute cc by-sa-4.0The definitive resource for all data in particle physics is the Particle Data Group: https://pdg.lbl.gov. The Pasayten Institute is on a mission to build and share physics knowledge, without barriers! Get in touch. The Neutral Sigma Baryons IntroductionWeighing in at 1192 MeV, the middle-weight sigma baryon is also the the electrically neutral one. The...

The Sigma Baryons - that’s a capital Sigma - are a trio of slightly heavy cousins to everyday particles like the proton and the neutron. With masses of almost 1200 MeV each, it may surprise you that the physics of Sigma baryons feels much closer to a comparatively puny trio of pions. The similarities are helpful for building an intuition, but the differences are stark. While the charged pions are antiparticle partners, the charged Sigmas are anything but.

The neutral kaons are strange mesons that also live unexpectedly long. The difference between these two brings even more surprises. Their identities are a bit mixed up; they depend upon which nuclear force they're talking to.

The Eta and Eta Prime particles are a pair of electrically neutral particles that were - for a moment anyway - the center of a fierce debate among physicists.

Strangeness - as a property of particles - was an attempt to explain why some particles took a really long time to decay. By that measure, the charged Kaons are definitely strange.

Quarks make up baryons like the proton and the neutron. Or more exotic things like the Lambda0 or the Delta++. Previously, we’ve learned about the up and down quarks - those fundamental constituents of matter like protons and neutrons. Today we’re learning about the third of the three light quarks - the strange quark!