Even if you only have a peripheral interest in physics you probably heard that CERN has released some puzzling results that appeared to indicate that neutrinos created by the experiment were traveling faster than the speed of light.
So what's the story? Are Einstein's theories on relativity... wrong?
Certainly, should the findings be determined to have merit, then there are certain aspects of relativity (and physics in general) that would have to be re-written.
Don't get me wrong, it would be an unprecedented paradigm shift in terms of our understanding of the Universe. But it doesn't think we throw all of our current knowledge out the window.
After all, relativity is accounted for in keeping satellites in orbit, GPS systems working properly, and all kinds of other technologies from malfunctioning.
Before we rush to rewrite the textbooks however, there is the question of whether the results are to be believed.
The experiment in question was actually a combination of two experiments - the CERN collider and the OPERA detector in Italy.
Neutrinos created in the LHC are beamed underground (neutrinos are very weakly interacting, so traveling underground does not impede their motion) to the OPERA experiment. With a well sorted distance measurement and precise timing the speed of the particles can be determined with nanosecond accuracy.
The CERN/OPERA researchers appear to have their bases covered, but to be sure they are opening up their results to the global scientific community to see if something was overlooked.
Across the internet interested parties are already postulating where the answer may lie. Naturally, some of these ideas have more credibility than others, but discussion is nonetheless fruitful.
Personally I believe that it will ultimately be determined that the result will be "overturned", with some systematic error being revealed.
For those of you interested in more of the details, and a why this result could be truly Earth shaking, my colleague Andrew Jones (About.com's guide to Physics) has presented an excellent discourse on the subject. Check it out.
As more information comes available, I'll be sure to update you all.
Comments
CERN’s Faster than Light Particle
he particle has already moved before we see it move, therefore it arrived ahead of time creating the illusion that it travelled faster than the speed of light; where in fact, it had travelled only at the speed of light in some sort of “phase shift” that created the illusion of faster than light speed.
Maybe this effect is a property of light speed?
Colin Neve
colinneve@yahoo.com
First of all, there cannot be such thing as a VACUUM (”empty-space”)for that would be equal to NOTHING, which is in itself an ABSURDITY, unless we´re talking about a substance that is not necessarily M.E.S.T.(physical). 2nd.If there´s such a substance, then…L.Ron Hubbard is right when he said:´there isn´t such thing as the speed of light´, meaning perhaps that a thinking-unit(a thetan)can travel anywhere INSTANTLY. 3rd. In typical physics… such neutrino would arrive at a place before it was even sent there! Crazy math?, Crazy physics? Crazy philosophy? Have a good day!
if has been said in the past that neutrinos have a very small amount of mass and to travel at light speed you must have no mass how can neutrinos go faster than light .
A small sub-group of British physicists have long thought that neutrinos (or certain types of them) could travel faster than light. Sometimes they called them tachyons.
I’ve read articles as far back as the 1970’s that theorize the existence of these FTL particles.
I’m still in the “Wait and See” stage of my excitement.
I LOVE it when a huge monkey wrench drops into an established theory. Let’s just wait and see if it’s a real monkey wrench.
well , that’s fantastic .
I love these kind discoveries where we don`t know how its result will bring change in us ?
till that happens I will wait and hope that what ever it is , it becomes one of the the greatest discoveries ever made.
maybe than we will be able to travel through time .
This is quite exciting,am really waiting anxiously 2 see the outcome. I love being a physicist!!!