Home

Latest News on “Faster Than Light” Neutrinos

2/27/2012

The case for faster-than-light neutrinos reported by CERN some months ago is beginning to fall apart as many in the scientific community suspected. It has been reported that the discovery of a faulty connection between the OPERA (the name for this project) GPS unit and the computer used to calculate the speed might be the culprit. In a separate experiment conducted by a project called ICARUS in Italy, a study of the very same CERN neutrino beam failed to show the variation in the beam’s energy level that would have resulted from a superluminal velocity.

Einstein’s relativity model of the universe (including his assertion that nothing physical can travel faster than light) continues to be repeatedly verified over the course of a century, sometimes in delightful and unanticipated ways. I always shake my head when some scientific authority sensationally proclaims an “Einstein was wrong” statement. Invariably, every such voice eventually fades into the cosmic background as it is squelched by the test of time.

3 Comments

Roy Scott

4/14/2012 02:46:46 am

Yes, it was a "loose cable" connection. This web site goes into it some....

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/338735/title/Loose_cable_blamed_for_speedy_neutrinos

I have read elsewhere that it was a faulty "USB" controller card. Ironic if true, that a Universal Serial Bus almost negated a Universal Law of physics!

Jose N. Pecina-Cruz

6/5/2012 05:57:21 pm

The latest news about neutrino particle moving slower than light. In my opinion is a political claim , instead a scientific finding. As it is stated in some of my papers the Heisenberg uncertainty principle conspires with elementary particles wander around the light-cone tunneling from the time-like region to the space-like where the particles could have a imaginary mass. The space-like unitary irreducible representations of Poincare group obtained by the method of the little group are clearly neutrinos with positive or negative helicitiy . This simple claim is considered by the physicists orthodox as too much speculative.
Perhaps, are afraid that the predicted Higgs particle that does not appear in any place was incomplete formulated and they have already spent the budget of several years on so bizarre venture.
New physics is in the way to explain those phenomena. But, it is clear for anyone that quantum mechanics continue being a headache for Einstein followers.

Jose N. Pecina-Cruz

Tom

6/7/2012 11:13:45 am

Thanks for the comment (for readers interested in Mr. Pecina- Cruz's referenced paper, please see http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0510/0510163.pdf, but be warned that this was not written with the layperson in mind). I appreciate your opinion on this matter. But I don't think that the mathematical potential of a particle to acquire negative mass is in itself an argument for the possibility of a positive assessment for the OPERA FTL (faster-than-light) neutrino findings, nor for a political motive behind discrediting them, especially in view of the apparent equipment problems and the premature announcement of these findings without collaborative verification. Even were we to set these aside, there is still no evidence, either factual or theoretical, of the presence of any causal constituent in the experiment for these neutrinos to transit through a superluminal state, since it's difficult to imagine their having been emitted superluminally, and inconceivable that the detector could have registered them while they were in a state of negative mass. Of course, the best verification would be the simultaneous transmission of photons along the same path, requiring the boring of a tunnel through the many miles of solid rock through which the neutrinos passed, an unlikely event in today's economic environment, especially considering the possibility of faulty equipment being responsible for the original findings, the absence of a reasonable explanation for the alleged positive results, and the almost unanimous rejection of FTL by physicists. Neither has the resignation of the team leaders helped (http://news.discovery.com/space/opera-leaders-resign-after-no-confidence-vote-120404.html). However, I find elements of your paper to be supportive of my own conclusions: "The mass of a particle itself is not an invariant, but its square. There is nothing to prevent that the rest mass could have different sign in distinct reference frame, as happen with its energy, electric charge and spin." But while quantum mechanics does pose problems for Einstein's relativity, the reverse also holds true, as you observed with comments on another site. Nothing in quantum physics can even begin to describe how relativistic predictability emerges from quantum uncertainty. Of course, my argument is that the guiding principle of a self-determining universe where all material effects have an equally material cause is a defective paradigm. It is only from this perspective that quantum mechanics appear paradoxical; it's a matter of perception colored by a strict materialistic paradigm. From a perspective of a nonlocal, superphysical causality for universal order, one would expect the quantum world to appear as it does, since it represents the very first observable level of that order's materialization from a superspatial and supertemperal causal source to its final ordered state. In its quantum "infancy," the dimensions of spacetime are as yet insufficiently unfolded for anything to be measurable in terms distinct spatial and temporal coordinates. The connective strings of quantum entanglement are not material or dimensional.

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

About the Author

Thomas P. Fusco has devoted nearly three decades of research into the relationship between mind, physics, spirituality, parapsychology, scientific anomalies and paranormal phenomena with the goal of uncovering the unifying cosmological framework that has eluded mankind for generations. He has been invited to speak as a guest on over 100 national and international radio programs, including Coast To Coast AM.

RSS Feed

Latest News on “Faster Than Light” Neutrinos

Leave a Reply.

Archives

About the Author