Final Proof that Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos are Impossible?

For the last few calendar month , physicist have been attempting to explain the apparent breakthrough of neutrinos go quicker than the speeding of light . No one has as yet rebut this determination , but some other particles may controvert these neutrino ’ existence .

In September , physicists at the OPERA experimentation annunciate that they had celebrate neutrinos traveling through the Earth from CERN to an underground detector in Gran Sasso seemingly faster than the pep pill of light , arrive 60 nanoseconds earlier than the law of physics would leave . Right now , physicists around the existence are assay to double these findings and to sort through all potential remonstrance and potential sources of wrongdoing . It ’s early days yet , but the OPERA anomaly has abide up fairly well to these attempts thus far .

But now Washington University St. Louis physicist Ramanath Cowsik and his squad have amount up with what is quite perhaps an impossible problem for these faster - than - light neutrino to overcome . alternatively of concenter on the neutrinos themselves , Cowsik looked at the other subatomic particles in the experimentation that were smashed together to create the neutrinos .

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Here ’s how the OPERA experimentation worked : Protons were shot towards a stationary object , which produced a pulse of particles know as pions . These are low - good deal subatomic particles that are compose of a pair of quark . ( For more on pions , check outour atom physics field guide . ) These pions were magnetically thrust through a long tunnel , and there they decayed into neutrinos and muons , which are like a more monolithic cousin of electrons .

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When the particles reached the end of the burrow , the muons smashed into the wall and come to a stop , but the extremely easy neutrinos slipped right through and made their way of life to Gran Sasso , a journeying they apparently finish 60 nanoseconds too promptly .

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The problem , from a theoretical perspective , is how to fit the pion into this storey . To reach superluminal speeds , the neutrino must have possess extreme amounts of vim . The law of conservation of energy and momentum demands that that muscularity fare from somewhere — specifically , the pions . But Cowsik calculated that if pion were to have enough energy to create faster - than - light neutrinos , then their life-time would also increase .

That exposit pi-meson lifespan would dramatically transfer the particles ’ radioactive decay form , and that ’s where the problem comes in . As the lifetime of the pion addition , the neutrino would carry a pocket-sized and smaller fraction of the total get-up-and-go of the atom — mean they would n’t have enough energy to reach faster - than - Light Within swiftness . And that problem only fix worse the more vitality you add to the pions .

This is a major job for the existence of superluminal neutrinos , though Cowsik does n’t overstate his finding , but observing “ that in the present theoretical account of physics , superluminal neutrinos would be difficult to bring about . ” It would appear that pions are exactly the wrong decline source for such neutrino , since there just does n’t seem to be a way to transfer enough get-up-and-go from pion to neutrinos in our current agreement of physics .

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Cowsik also explain that the IceCube neutrino sensing element seems to offer observational reenforcement for his team ’s theoretical employment :

“ IceCube has see to it neutrinos with energies 10,000 sentence higher than those the OPERA experiment is create . Thus , the energies of their parent pions should be correspondingly high . elementary calculations , free-base on the conservation of push and momentum , dictate that the lifetimes of those pions should be too long for them ever to decay into superluminal neutrino . But the notice of eminent - energy neutrino by IceCube indicates that these high - muscularity pions do decompose according to the stock theme of physics , beget neutrino whose swiftness approaches that of light but never exceed it . ”

So , what does this think for the OPERA anomaly ? Since the results themselves seem to want antecedently unknown aperient to explain them , it ’s at least conceivable that some other exotic phenomenon could explain this pi-meson decay problem . But right now , this seems to be some of the most damnatory grounds yet against the existence of the faster - than - light neutrinos .

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