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Faster-Than-Light Particle Results To Be Re-Tested

Posted by samzenpus on from the check-your-work dept.

surewouldoutlaw writes "After the astonishing news from CERN that the OPERA experiment had detected neutrinos traveling faster than light speed, challenging Einstein's theory of special relativity, there has been some skepticism over the results. Now Fermilab, near Chicago, has announced it will attempt to replicate the experimental results within four to six months."

14 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. Re:HOLY REPLICABLE RESULTS BATMAN! by flaming+error · · Score: 5, Funny

    How could we see it coming, if it's traveling faster than light?

  2. Re:HOLY REPLICABLE RESULTS BATMAN! by RivenAleem · · Score: 4, Funny

    You deduced its pending arrival by virtue of it having arrived.

  3. ... walks into a bar. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The barkeep says 'We don't serve faster-than-light particles in here'. A neutrino walks into a bar.

    1. Re:... walks into a bar. by imakemusic · · Score: 4, Funny

      Did you hear the one about the neutrino?

      --
      Brain surgery - it's not rocket science!
    2. Re:... walks into a bar. by Lord+Lode · · Score: 4, Funny

      The joke is too fast for you.

    3. Re:... walks into a bar. by iggymanz · · Score: 5, Funny

      I like tasteful jokes but that was a tachyon

  4. Damn straight by mbone · · Score: 4, Informative

    They already did the experiment, and actually found similar results but did not claim any significance. Of course they are going to repeat this, once they finish kicking themselves.

    1. Re:Damn straight by LeDopore · · Score: 4, Informative

      From TFA: “We should have a result in 4-6 months as the data is already taken. We just have to measure some of our delays more carefully,” - Jenny Thomas.

      MINOS was already repeating their measurements, but CERN got the jump on them. It's anyone's guess too whether there was a back channel of information from OPERA to MINOS that might have tipped them off and encouraged them to start taking data early. With so many people involved, you almost have to assume that preliminary findings migrate across the Atlantic pretty quickly.

      --
      Expected time to finish is 1 hour and 60 minutes.
    2. Re:Damn straight by mbone · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, I would agree. 184 coauthors can keep a secret, if 183 are dead.

      Note that there is already a theoretical paper out on these results, so it has been percolating around a little. Note also that this paper says

      The MINOS collaboration reported a measurement of the muonic neutrino velocities that hints to super-luminal propagation, very recently confirmed at 6 [sigma] by OPERA.

      Do I smell a priority fight coming ?

  5. Good by Ironhandx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The process is working.

    The scientists at CERN asked for peer review and checking of their methodology. This announcement means that at least on paper the method was near-perfect for Fermilab to be committing resources in the near future to prove/disprove it.

    1. Re:Good by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You say that because you're probably not intimately familiar with just *how* well established General Relativity is.

      It's a theory which has survived decades of absurdly rigorous testing. Being cautious in how you present it is absolutely the correct approach - and far more responsible then how say, the debacle over cold fusion was handled.

      These are not trivial measurements to make, nor is there any obvious explanatory theory that they confirm. They also aren't a gross excess - well bounded, but a very small difference which is on the same timescale as the delays in the processing speeds of the individual components of the apparatus. It's only us sci-fi nerds who fully expect (want) FTL to be possible and Relativity broken somehow.

  6. Re:HOLY REPLICABLE RESULTS BATMAN! by Abstrackt · · Score: 5, Funny

    I see what you [are going to do] there.

    --
    They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  7. What if light travels at slightly less than c? by LeDopore · · Score: 5, Interesting

    OPERA has just found that either neutrinos travel 0.03% faster than photons we've measured, or their equipment has an unknown systematic error. Assuming there's no equipment error, I would find it more palatable to assume that light around Earth travels a bit below c and that neutrinos travel closer to c. What we think of as vacuum could really be a medium with refractive index 1.0003, perhaps due to a uniform background of weakly-interacting particles (maybe even dark matter) that affect photons but not neutrinos.

    I have a physics undergrad degree; if there's someone here with better qualifications, would you care to weigh in on the idea that c could be 0.03% faster than the speed of light we measure on Earth?

    --
    Expected time to finish is 1 hour and 60 minutes.
  8. Re:HOLY REPLICABLE RESULTS BATMAN! by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Informative

    There once was a lady named Bright,
    Who could travel faster than light.
    She left one day
    In a relative way
    And came back the previous night.

    So, either you already saw it coming, or you didn't :-)

    Now, to understand it better, read All You Zombies by Robert Heinlein (pdf of complete story). Considered by many to be the greatest time travel short story ever.