---
title: "Scientists May Be Close to Understanding Why the Universe Exists"
description: "Their research falls short of a definite discovery, but researchers think they've found evidence of one of the main theories on why the universe exists."
date: "2020-04-23"
modified: "2020-04-23"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-close-understanding-why-universe-exists"
categories:
  - "Physics"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "Antimatter"
  - "physics"
  - "the digest"
  - "universe"
---

# Scientists May Be Close to Understanding Why the Universe Exists

![Their research falls short of a definite discovery, but researchers think they've found evidence of one of the main theories on why the universe exists.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/scientists-close-understanding-why-universe-exists.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Image via Needpix\</em\>*

## Universal Imbalance

Scientists think that they've taken a step toward finally understanding one of the greatest mysteries of the universe: why it exists in the first place.

When the universe formed, it created [both antimatter and matter](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/physicists-crashing-matter-antimatter-hunt-new-boson>), which destroy each other when they meet. So why there's enough matter left to form all the galaxies, stars, and worlds out there is a key question.

Now, *[Scientific American ](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antimatter-discovery-reveals-clues-about-the-universes-beginning/>)*[reports](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antimatter-discovery-reveals-clues-about-the-universes-beginning/>) that scientists have made substantial progress toward providing an answer.

## Piecing It Together

The theory, called leptogenesis, posits that the Big Bang spewed out a massive number of subatomic particles called neutrinos. When those neutrinos eventually broke apart, leptogenesis suggests that they happened to form more matter byproducts than antimatter ones.

New findings out of Japan's [Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) experiment](<https://t2k-experiment.org/>), which were [published last week](<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2177-0>) in the journal *Nature*, aren't definitive evidence of the leptogenesis theory. But, pending the many follow-up experiments and analyses that would be necessary to actually make that declaration, *SciAm* reports that the findings do seem to strongly suggest that leptogenesis is on to something.

## Missing Data

**T**he study suggested there's a 95 percent chance that the neutrinos break down into an uneven proportion of matter to antimatter, a measurement called CP violation. That sounds convincing, but it's not good enough for such a fundamental mystery of the universe.

"We don’t call it a discovery yet," Stony Brook University researcher and T2K team member Chang Kee Jung told *SciAm*.

**READ MORE:** [Antimatter Discovery Reveals Clues about the Universe’s Beginning](<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antimatter-discovery-reveals-clues-about-the-universes-beginning/>) \[*Scientific American*\]

**More on neutrinos:** *[Shocking Research Threatens Our Understanding of Dark Matter](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/research-doesnt-find-dark-matter-milky-way>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)