Faster-than-light neutrino measurement withstands new test
November 17, 2011 | 7:29 pm
"Scientists modified the beam of neutrinos traveling through the Earth from CERN to INFN. Image: Jean-Luc Caron
The OPERA experiment’s surprising superluminal neutrino result is holding fast after a new measurement designed to eliminate a possible source of systematic error from their previous tests.
OPERA scientists reported the new results in a press release and a paper released on the arXiv today.
“The positive outcome of the test makes us more confident in the result,” said Fernando Ferroni, president of the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics. But “a final word can only be said by analogous measurements performed elsewhere in the world.”
Accordingly, OPERA and other experiments, including Fermilab’s MINOS and KEK laboratory’s T2K, will continue collecting data in the coming year.
OPERA scientists first presented their neutrino measurement on Sept. 23. The experiment measures the velocity of particles as they arrive at detectors at Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy from 730 kilometers away at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. September’s baffling results showed the neutrinos arriving in Italy 60 nanoseconds before light, a feat that seemed to break the laws of physics. Theorists have not been able to explain how the result could be true, but experimentalists have not been able to explain how it could be false.
For the new measurement, CERN operators spaced particle bunches in the neutrino beam farther apart by as much as 524 nanoseconds and sent them to Italy in short, three nanosecond pulses. This allowed OPERA physicists to trace neutrinos measured at the final destination back to the exact pulse from which they came. Last time the neutrino bunches were so close together that physicists had to rely on statistics to determine which one corresponded to each observed neutrino. The new arrangement got rid of at least this source of potential fuzziness.
Although this narrower, sparser beam led to more accurate definitions of the particles’ velocities, it also meant that physicists had fewer events to observe overall. In fact, OPERA measured only 20 events this way – one reason the collaboration will need more measurements before concluding anything with certainty.
Amy Dusto
Posted in intensity frontier, neutrinos |
5 Comments »
November 19th, 2011 at 8:37 am
Since neutrinos have mass, they cannot travel superluminally or even at the speed of light.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:53 am
Perhaps interesting idea was suggested by Stefanovich:
Superluminal effect with oscillating neutrinos by Eugene V. Stefanovich
http://vixra.org/abs/1110.0052
November 23rd, 2011 at 11:22 am
OPERATIC CONCERN
– James Ph. Kotsybar
Oh, little neutral one of tiny mass,
who flies anomolously from the sun,
you zip through matter photons cannot pass:
Could this explain the races you have won?
From Einstein, few believe that it could be
that any mass can go as fast as light –
it’s deemed complete impossibility,
assuming Relativity is right.
If proved, the implications terrible,
will give complacent physicists a scare.
In terms that twist the ancient parable
it’s you that’s tortoise; the photon’s the hare.
It seems, though steady, light can’t keep up pace.
You oscillate, and yet you win the race.
November 27th, 2011 at 11:01 am
Look for the simplest solution to a large problem. Consider a vacuum state change in locality of neutrinos that introduces a different value of C for that region. Both regions would obey Lorentz Invariance the same as the laws of physics still remain the same in vacuum, air, water, etc.
December 5th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
What if the speed of light isn’t constant, as some physicists suggested recently?
What if the speed of light varies through time and space?
That would create some interesting theory. At least I think so.
Antimatter is the mind and consciousness of all living entities.
You are your own universe.
Reality is where the minds (antimatter) meets the physical universe.
Interested? Then read my philosophical multiverse theory.
Google crestroyer theory, and find it instantly.
http://crestroyertheory.com/the-theory/