Leading Light: What Would Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos Mean for Physics? (2)

The effect is now known not to be real. SImply an error in properly using Einstein's theory of special relativity. - Jack Sarfatti

The stunning recent announcement of neutrinos apparently exceeding the speed of light was greeted with startled wonderment followed by widespread disbelief. Although virtually every scientist on record expects this discovery to vanish once more detailed analysis takes place, dozens of researchers are exploring the question whose answer could shake the foundations of physics: What if this anomaly is real?

Neutrinos are ghostly particles that only weakly interact with normal matter; trillions of neutrinos stream through our bodies every second. Last month researchers from the European OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus) collaboration reported clocking pulses of neutrinos moving at speeds that appeared to be a smidgen faster than light-speed. That might seem impossible, given the universal speed limit set by Albert Einstein's long-standing and well-tested special theory of relativity, but neutrinos have proved chock full of surprises over the years. For instance, in the late 1990s they were found to have mass after decades of thought to the contrary.

The credibility of the OPERA scientists who made the supposed discovery of superluminal neutrinos is not in doubt. "This is legitimate, professionally done science—these are not cranks," says neutrino physicist John Learned of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Astroparticle physicist Steen Hannestad of Aarhus University in Denmark agrees that "there are no obvious problems with the experiment." Still, Hannestad adds, "on any given year, one or more such anomalies show up in experiments—this is particularly true for neutrino physics, where measurements are notoriously hard."

Virtually every physicist interviewed strongly doubts the results will hold up, including the experimenters themselves. Recent calculations also suggest that any neutrinos traveling faster than light would have radiated most of their energy away before reaching detectors, something the researchers did not see.

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