Antimatter particles possess the same mass and spin as their normal particle counterparts, but possess an opposite charge and transform into pure energy upon colliding with normal matter.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second.

Some particles that mediate fundamental forces in nature are their own antiparticles, such as photons—particles of light and mediators of the electromagnetic force.

At CERN's Antimatter Factory, researchers create and guide antiprotons and antielectrons together to form antihydrogen, and all these antiparticles are analyzed to help scientists study the behavior of antimatter.

If they could be built, antimatter drives, which run on energy released from the collision of matter and antimatter particles, would be the most efficient engines in existence.

Antimatter was predicted to exist four years before it was observed, though the mathematics responsible for the prediction described it as matter with negative energy.

Antimatter can be created from dark lightning—high-energy light emitted by deflected electrons after they are accelerated to near the speed of light by thunderstorms.

Antimatter's rarity across the cosmos is one of the biggest problems in modern physics because the high-energy environment of the early universe should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter.

It may be possible to create dark matter in particle accelerators

In high-energy collisions, exotic forms of matter can be produced by directly converting energy into mass according to *E = mc*². Even though a dark matter particle would not be directly observable, its creation would result in unaccounted-for mass, which can be compared to potential dark matter candidates for indirect detection.

The one-electron theory describes the universe as having only one electron

The thought experiment explains why every electron has the same charge and mass as every other electron, and describes every positron—the antimatter version of the electron—as that same electron traveling backwards in time. Among other foundational challenges, the model suggests that the universe contains equal numbers of electrons and positrons, yet normal matter is much more common than antimatter.

Depictions of antimatter in science fiction include misleading portrayals of it coming from parallel universes, being mined from asteroids, and serving as a workable laser beam.

In 2026, researchers successfully transported antimatter in a truck using a portable trap that employed electromagnetic fields to hold 92 antiprotons.

Antimatter was discovered by examining debris from collisions between atmospheric gases and cosmic rays—high-energy matter particles from space.

In 1997, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory identified 'positron geysers'—fountains of antimatter particles—emerging from near the center of the Milky Way.

The Higgs boson is a quanta, or discrete piece, of the Higgs field, which gives elementary particles, such as quarks and electrons, mass as they travel through it.

If particle accelerators did create black holes by packing tremendous energy into a small volume, then trillions would be created in Earth's atmosphere daily by cosmic rays.

After photons—particles of light—neutrinos are the most abundant particles in the universe.

Within ALICE—A Large Ion Collider Experiment—at the Large Hadron Collider, scientists have created quark-gluon plasma—an exotic form of matter present in the moments after the Big Bang.

The average banana produces one positron—the antimatter counterpart to an electron—every 75 minutes as its trace amounts of radioactive potassium decay.

Less common types of radioactive decay include emitting neutrons and antimatter

Through neutron emission, one or more neutrons are ejected from atoms that have far fewer protons. Neutrons can also be released by artificially inducing the fission, or separation, of a large atomic nucleus into smaller ones. During beta-plus decay, a positron—the antimatter version of an electron—is produced when a proton turns into a neutron.

Some theorists have suggested that dark matter consists of supersymmetric particles—massive, hypothetical versions of known particles, such as the sneutrino, which is the supersymmetric partner of the neutrino.

The Higgs boson provides a mechanism that explains why some particles have mass

The mathematics of quantum field theory suggested that force particles should be massless, like the photon for electromagnetism, but the weak nuclear force’s equivalent W and Z particles are not. The Higgs field provides mass when interacting with such particles.

View a ranking of the masses of fundamental particles, from the massless photon to the top quark, and a timeline of their discoveries.

Particle accelerators propel matter toward small targets at high speed

Devices like cathode-ray tube televisions were once basic particle accelerators, but modern ones, such as the Large Hadron Collider, use massive magnetic fields and circular tunnels to achieve energies high enough to recreate the conditions just after the big bang.

Particle interactions follow rules related to specific quantum properties

Like a business whose purchased inventory matches sold inventory, physicists identified specific patterns across decades of particle accelerator data, which became new conservation laws for elementary particles. These laws help identify which particle decays are expected or forbidden.

PET scans create images of the body by detecting light emitted from the annihilation of matter and antimatter, with the latter produced by custom chemicals containing radioactive atoms.

The hypothetical matter that neutron stars' cores may contain, including strange quarks

Models of the extreme pressures and energies in neutron stars suggest conditions resembling those believed to have existed within a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. In these environments, the quarks that make up protons and neutrons in trios may instead form pairs that combine to form one quantum object. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

View a step-by-step breakdown of how helium is forged in stars alongside antimatter

During the proton-proton chain, four hydrogen nuclei—protons—are fused together to create an alpha particle—a helium nucleus—and produce the energy that supports a star's own weight. Through radioactive decay, two of these protons become neutrons, with each releasing an antielectron, or positron, and an electron neutrino.

Emergent quantum phenomena can produce nonfundamental quasiparticles

While physicists have discovered new particles by colliding known ones at high speeds, placing known particles in extreme environments or configurations can allow quantum mechanics to produce bizarre behaviors, making them seem like new types of matter.

A beam of neutrinos can be created by firing a beam of high-energy protons at a target to produce unstable particles that decay into neutrinos.

Simulate the impact of an antimatter bomb, which releases energy from the annihilation of matter with antimatter, around the world.

Some cosmic rays possess energies as high as 100,000,000 teraelectron volts—more than 10 million times the energy of particles accelerated in the Large Hadron Collider.

Nuclear fusion, where the nuclei of two atoms are combined, can produce near-limitless clean energy, but requires extreme conditions to kickstart because of the natural repulsion of atomic nuclei.

Learn about five of the largest particle accelerators on Earth, which, as of 2026, are led by the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Axions, a hypothetical subatomic particle, are a leading dark matter candidate

Among the possibilities for what makes up dark matter, some physicists champion axions, which could clump into galaxy-scale quantum states. These states would act as massive, unified superparticles that could explain the observational evidence for the universe's missing matter.

Once called 'aces,' quarks are fundamental pieces of matter that combine to create over 100 known composite particles, including the proton and neutron.

An overview of radioactivity, which can spontaneously change one element into another

Unstable atomic nuclei can transmute into a new element—an atom with a different number of protons—by emitting an alpha particle (two protons and two neutrons) or a beta particle (an electron). The electron can emerge from the nucleus when a neutron, which has no charge, suddenly transforms into a proton and an electron, thereby maintaining zero charge before and after the transformation, but altering the original element.

Although among the most comprehensive frameworks in science, the Standard Model has numerous gaps, including its inability to explain dark matter, dark energy, or why normal matter is so much more abundant than antimatter.

Leptons do not experience the strong nuclear force that binds quarks together

Particles like electrons can exist in isolation, enabling them to move more freely. Within circuits, this allows electrons to carry energy across wire surfaces quickly. Contrastingly, light created in the sun's core is delayed by a million years on its way to Earth due to collisions with free electrons.

As of 2026, 75 of the 86 particles discovered by the Large Hadron Collider have been found by the LHCb experiment—a detector that explores the decay of particles made of beauty and charm quarks.

Quarks are elementary particles that come in six varieties and combine together to form larger, composite particles, such as the proton and the neutron.

Explaining the Higgs boson, also known as the 'God Particle'

The Higgs boson is a long sought after fundamental particle that—within the framework of high-energy physics—gives other particles their mass. Having captured public attention when it was discovered in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider, and its...

Particle accelerators detect subatomic particles using millions of sensors

Calorimeters measure the energy of particles. Tracking devices can measure momentum and charge from the trajectory of particles, which is determined by recording tiny electrical signals. Time-of-flight detectors provide particle velocities directly and particle mass indirectly, giving physicists a suite of properties to compare with those of known matter.

Virtual particles are bookkeeping tools used to describe force interactions

Physicists mathematically describe the electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and strong nuclear forces as the result of these particles being exchanged between particles of matter. Despite not being real, observable particles, this method has provided experimental predictions with an accuracy of over 12 decimal places.

View the most expensive materials on Earth, led by antimatter and other elements forged in particle accelerators.

At the Large Hadron Collider, protons are accelerated so close to the speed of light that they would lag behind a laser by just 10 feet after 14 minutes of travel.

Before 1932, when particle accelerators were first used for nuclear research, scientists relied on naturally radioactive substances to advance their understanding of the atomic nucleus.

Quantum mechanics explains how particles behave like both matter and waves

In the quantum world, particles such as electrons are “quantized,” meaning they can only hold specific values of energy or momentum. These particles also behave like waves, with their wave function predicting where they might be found at any moment as probability clouds called orbitals.

Tachyons are theoretical particles that travel through space faster than light

The equations of special relativity require these objects to possess imaginary mass, and they would travel faster the more energy is taken away from them. The existence of tachyons would necessitate an unknown form of matter and lead to paradoxes involving information that can hypothetically travel backward in time.

The wave nature of matter can produce phenomena like negative time and retrocausality

Within quantum mechanics, matter simultaneously exists as both fixed particles and extended waves, allowing it to emerge across barriers—just as sound travels through walls—before it fully enters the obstacle. The resulting measurements can show that particles spent negative time within a barrier, with the future occurring before the past.

View summaries of the most common types of radioactive decay and their associated particles

The alpha particle has the strongest ability to ionize other atoms it strikes, but it also does not travel very far before colliding with something and being absorbed. Gamma particles—high-energy photons—do not interact with matter as easily and therefore possess the greatest penetrating power, though this also makes their ionizing potential the smallest.