Physicists have suspected neutrinos in overcoming the speed of light


Scientists involved in the Italian experiment, said that they recorded an unusual, impossible from the point of view of modern physics phenomenon of neutrino has overcome the speed of light. Sensational results were obtained on the detector OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus), which is located at a depth of 1,400 meters under the Italian Alps in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso).
These beams arrive tau neutrinos produced by Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN, located 732 kilometers away. This way the particles are approximately 3 milliseconds.
It is worth noting that the tau neutrinos appearing in the motion - from Switzerland to Italy available muon neutrinos (why this is important, it will become clear later). "Switching" between flavors occurs spontaneously.
Researchers within two years conducted experiments and observed that neutrinos arriving at the detector before the calculation of time - about 60 nanoseconds (total there were about 16 thousand of these events occurring can be considered statistically significant).

Scientists can measure the length of the path that are particles with an accuracy of ± 20 centimeters, and eventually motion they can not go wrong by more than ± 10 nanoseconds. The result shocked the researchers.

"At first we tried to find an explanation for what he saw. Then they began to look for trivial errors of their complex error, and finally, absolutely indecent effects. But nothing could not be found "- swears professor Antonio Ereditato (Antonio Ereditato) from the University of Bern.

Now scientists are asked to check their results all comers. "My dream is to another, independent experiment got the same result. Then I can breathe a sigh of relief, "- said Ereditato.

(Only two laboratories in the world capable of it: the US Fermilab
and the Japanese T2K. But the first does not have the facilities to provide the necessary, like the Europeans, accuracy, and the second is after the tsunami and earthquake.)

"So far nothing we can say for sure. We only wish that the scientific community has helped us understand our crazy results - says Ereditato. - And, of course, we understand that the consequences could be very serious ».
However, the world does not turn over, because neutrinos bombard the Earth billions of years.
The new knowledge will change the presentation of the physics of our universe. If these particles are still ahead of the light, you will need to look for new patterns and explanations.

By the way, some explanations have not yet confirmed the phenomenon of the scientists are already available. For example, perhaps there is a certain space "short circuit": neutrinos pass through another dimension.

Scientists presented their results in an article on the website preprints ArXiv.org, and announce at today's conference at CERN. (See also Press Release Center for Nuclear Research).

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