Ghostly Particles

-- by Horatio Algeranon

Neutrinos moving faster than light?

The excess speed is oh so slight

But if indeed the result is right

Einstein will turn a ghostly white.

But Einstein need not worry yet
Cuz that result's a long-shot bet
A hundred years of physics tests
Have not disturbed his state of rest.

Particles Found to Travel Faster Than Speed of Light (By Geoff Brumfiel and Nature magazine)

"Neutrino results challenge a cornerstone of Albert Einstein​'s special theory of relativity, which itself forms the foundation of modern physics


An Italian experiment has unveiled evidence that fundamental particles known as neutrinos can travel faster than light. Other researchers are cautious about the result, but if it stands further scrutiny, the finding would overturn the most fundamental rule of modern physics—that nothing travels faster than 299,792,458 meters per second."

But Einstein has little reason for concern -- not yet, anyway. It is more likely that the experimenters made some error that only makes it appear that the neutrinos traveled faster than light.

Though Horatios are by our nature skeptical of ghosts, that's not simply this Horatio's opinion. See, for example, "Superluminal neutrinos would wimp out en route" (By Davide Castelvecchi)

"In a terse, peremptory-sounding paper posted online on September 29, Andrew Cohen and Sheldon Glashow of Boston University calculate that any neutrinos traveling faster than light would radiate energy away, leaving a wake of slower particles analogous to the sonic boom of a supersonic fighter jet. Their findings cast doubt on the veracity of measurements recently announced at CERN (and posted online here) that clocked neutrinos going a sliver faster than light."

But we -- and Einstein -- shall see.