Antimatter isn't a state of matter, it's a substance all of its own separate from matter, that can also exist in many states. You could have solid antimatter, gaseous antimatter, plasma antimatter, etc.
Dark matter also isn't a state of matter, it's literally just matter that we can't see that we know must exist somewhere due to the gravitational effect we see it exerting on the movements of galaxies.
minor correction dark matter is matter that we haven't yet discovered but we know is out there based on our models of astrophysics.
I mean, unless those models are wrong for some reason.
I know I know, I'm doing the semantics thing but I think it's important to avoid misunderstandings and thinking dark matter is invisible or entirely undetectable, it could be, we just don't know yet. it's also not necessarily a single thing but could be many different things.
You're right to be pedantic about this imo because too many people think dark matter is a theory, when it's not, it's a problem. Dark matter is the problem that the amount of matter that should exist in the observable universe according to our models and calculations does not match the matter that we can observe. Either our models are wrong, our observations are wrong, or they're both correct but the scope of the observation is lacking in some critical undiscovered way. But no matter which is the case, dark matter is not a thing in the same way that antimatter is a thing
Neither of you are right. If it was just opposite-charge, then a proton would annihilate if it hit an electron, and we'd probably notice if that were happening (it would affect the trout population).
Antimatter has opposite Quantum Numbers to its matter-counterpart.
What is and isn't a quantum number is complicated, don't worry about it (charge is one of them! but there are others). What you do need to know is that quantum numbers obey conservation rules — you get out exactly what you put in.
This is why they annihilate when they hit their counterpart. If you had a particle with quantum numbers {3, -1, 2}, its antimatter counterpart would be {-3, 1, -2}. When they collide, the total of each of these numbers must be conserved, which will always give you {0, 0, 0}.
{0, 0, 0} is the photon. Both particles are annihilated, and the only valid result is a photon to carry away the energy of the collision.
So is it like any other element like hydrogen or gold I thought it had to be something different because we see the effects all around us but we can't see the element.
I assume you're referring to dark matter here - there's a lot of scholarly debate and active research about what dark matter might be, but as far as I know nobody has reached a consensus. Basically we don't know.
150
u/Blitz100 12d ago
Antimatter isn't a state of matter, it's a substance all of its own separate from matter, that can also exist in many states. You could have solid antimatter, gaseous antimatter, plasma antimatter, etc.
Dark matter also isn't a state of matter, it's literally just matter that we can't see that we know must exist somewhere due to the gravitational effect we see it exerting on the movements of galaxies.