Cosmology is the branch of physics that deals with the Universe. It is concerned with its most minute components as well as its most colossal structures, from its birth 13.8 billion years ago to its final moments in a future yet to be determined. To think about an object of this kind, we have to make simplifying hypotheses, which are brought together in mathematical models. But the current standard cosmological model, based on Einstein’s theory of general relativity, is in crisis.
To account for what we observe, we keep adding hypothetical elements, like patches. For the moment, we can’t explain the movement of galaxies without assuming the existence of so-called « dark matter », nor the speed of expansion of the Universe without « dark energy », and while we know that in the first instants of the Big Bang there was as much matter as antimatter, we don’t know where the latter has gone, as it is only observed very briefly and in tiny quantities in our particle accelerator.
For decades, Gabriel Chardin has been building an alternative model that would solve these problems. If we assume that antimatter « antigravitates », i.e. that it repels everything and therefore « falls » upwards, then we no longer need to suppose the existence of dark matter or energy, and this antimatter would not have disappeared but would be found, extremely diluted, almost everywhere in the Universe.
This model, taken very seriously, is currently being tested at CERN, where attempts are being made to « weigh » anti-electrons. The first partial results were published in September 2023, and the experiments will continue.
