Oberlin College Physics & Astronomy Lecture Series: Sun Yool Park

“What's the Matter with the Universe?”

Everything we can see is made of matter—from us to all the stars and galaxies in the distant night sky. While this may not be surprising, our current physical theories can’t explain why. This is because the big bang should have produced just as much antimatter as matter, but we don’t see that much antimatter anywhere we look. Proposed theories can explain a universe made of matter, but only if there’s another asymmetry: particles like protons or electrons have more charge on one side than the other. We can look for this asymmetry with tabletop experiments using atoms, molecules, and lasers. In my talk, I’ll specifically talk about the electron’s electric dipole moment (EDM), including what it is, what a non-zero value of the eEDM can mean for new physics, and how we measure it in the lab.