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Phys.org reports that in a new paper accepted by the journal Astroparticle Physics, Robert Ehrlich, a recently retired physicist from George Mason University, claims that the electron neutrino is very likely a tachyon or faster-than-light particle. Ehrlich's new claim of faster-than-light neutrinos is based on a much more sensitive method than measuring their speed, namely by finding their mass. The result relies on tachyons having an imaginary mass, or a negative mass squared. Imaginary mass particles have the weird property that they speed up as they lose energy – the value of their imaginary mass being defined by the rate at which this occurs. According to Ehrlich, the magnitude of the neutrino's imaginary mass is 0.33 electronvolts, or 2/3 of a millionth that of an electron. He deduces this value by showing that six different observations from cosmic rays, cosmology, and particle physics all yield this same value (PDF) within their margin of error. One check on Ehrlich's claim could come from the experiment known as KATRIN, which should start taking data in 2015. In this experiment the mass of the neutrino could be revealed by looking at the shape of the spectrum in the beta decay of tritium, the heaviest isotope of hydrogen.p
But be careful. There have been many such claims, the last being in 2011 when the "OPERA" experiment measured the speed of neutrinos and claimed they travelled a tiny amount faster than light. When their speed was measured again the original result was found to be in error – the result of a loose cable no less. "Before you try designing a "tachyon telephone" to send messages back in time to your earlier self it might be prudent to see if Ehrlich's claim is corroborated by others."
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 27 2014, @05:30PM
vell it makes sense!
ze electron and photons are coupled tightly.
a universe with just electrons and photons is... vell .. self exploding so we needs the protons alzo.
but some say that bigger atoms cannot just be protons and thus we need neutrons too.
but ze neutron doesn't interact much with ze photons and if ze neutron should suddenly
become able to interact with ze electrons and ze photons, that is, it decays into a proton and
electron then there should be a "particle" that goes and informs the rest of the universe that they will
be zeeing some new particles ( ze new proton and electron from ze decayed neutron) that want to emit and absorbe ze light now.
so my best comparison is that in a cluster of computers, that would be all the normal nucleus and electrons making
ze atoms, that exchange data vith each other via photons (and gravity) then the neutrino is the management network
thru which each computer can be managed ... so a true faster then light meta particle.
zeen again, maybe it doesn't exist at all and the universe doesn't add up to ZER0 as our sense of beauty would like : )