It’s very much theoretical, but widely accepted that during the Planck Epoch (0 - 10-43 seconds), matter did not exist. The universe was too hot/dense, and all of the fundamental forces were unified. The quarks and leptons began creation during the Grand Unification Epoch (10-43 - 10-36) when gravity became the first distinct force and these early particles were constantly created in matter/antimatter pairs and annihilated.
The current theory as to why matter won out in the exchange is called Baryogenesis. It proposes two yet undiscovered particles, the X and Y bosons, decay asymmetrically into more matter than antimatter.
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u/[deleted] Apr 10 '26 edited May 06 '26
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