Antimatter is a concept in particle physics that refers to particles that are similar to ordinary matter but have opposite electric charge and other quantum numbers. For every type of particle in the Standard Model of particle physics, there exists a corresponding antiparticle with the same mass but opposite charge.
When matter and antimatter particles come into contact, they can annihilate each other, converting their mass into energy. This annihilation process releases an enormous amount of energy, following Einstein's famous equation, E = mc².
Antiparticles have the same properties as their corresponding particles but with opposite charges. For example, the antiparticle of the electron (a negatively charged particle) is the positron, which has the same mass as an electron but carries a positive charge.
Antimatter can be produced in particle accelerators or in certain natural processes, such as high-energy cosmic ray interactions or radioactive decay. It is also used in various scientific and medical applications, such as in positron emission tomography (PET) scans.
Antimatter plays a role in our understanding of fundamental physics, but it is relatively rare in the universe compared to ordinary matter. The reasons for the apparent imbalance between matter and antimatter in the observable universe are still an open question in physics and an area of ongoing research.