Pete, Gourdhead,

I want to be certain that I understand what you are saying. Do you both
agree that the amount of ordinary matter and antimatter in the Universe
should be exactly equal, and there is no explanation for why we apparently
see only ordinary matter?

If so, that is heartening to me, because I have an ATM speculation which
posits that the ordinary matter and antimatter are still exactly equal, and
were separated from each other early in the universal expansion. The
mechanism of separation requires that the supposedly "broken" symmetries
between the two are not broken at all. It also appears to require that the
photon is not its own antiparticle. So I hypothesize a major difference
between ordinary photons and antiphotons, but I don't know what that
difference might be. I do have a rough idea what the observational
consequences must be. Gravitational lensing of antiphotons would look
completely different from gravitational lensing of ordinary photons, for
example. I do not have the math to calculate light paths, but my best
estimate is that gravitational lensing of antiphotons results in spreading
out of light, rather than concentration, making it much harder to see.

So an astronomical test of that hypothesis and my entire speculation
should be possible. I just don't have any idea of the magnitude of the
effects to look for.

A laboratory test is also possible. I have been waiting for CERN or
Los Alamos or somebody to do it for a couple of decades, now. They
keep promising, but it hasn't been done yet because it is so extremely
delicate: measurement of gravitational force on anti-hydrogen atoms.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves