Matter creation

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Even restricting the discussion to physics, scientists do not have a unique definition of what matter is. In the currently known particle physics, summarised by the standard model of elementary particles and interactions, it is possible to distinguish in an absolute sense particles of matter and particles of antimatter. This is particularly easy for those particles that carry electric charge, such as electrons, protons or quarks, while the distinction is more subtle in the case of neutrinos, fundamental elementary particles that do not carry electric charge. In the standard model, it is not possible to create a net amount of matter particles—or more precisely, it is not possible to change the net number of leptons or of quarks in any perturbative reaction among particles. This remark is consistent with all existing observations.

However, similar processes are not considered to be impossible and are expected in other models of the elementary particles, that extend the standard model. They are necessary in speculative theories that aim to explain the cosmic excess of matter over antimatter, such as leptogenesis and baryogenesis. They could even manifest themselves in laboratory as proton decay or as creations of electrons in the so-called neutrinoless double beta decay. The latter case occurs if the neutrinos are Majorana particles, being at the same time matter and antimatter, according to the definition given just above.^[1]

In a wider sense, one can use the word matter simply to refer to fermions. In this sense, matter and antimatter particles (such as an electron and a positron) are identified beforehand. The process inverse to particle annihilation can be called matter creation; more precisely, we are considering here the process obtained under time reversal of the annihilation process. This process is also known as pair production, and can be described as the conversion of light particles (i.e., photons) into one or more massive particles ^{[citation needed]}. The most common and well-studied case is the one where two photons convert into an electron–positron pair.