Possible Faster-Than-Light Particle of the Day: Scientists at CERN say they’ve measured a neutrino traveling 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light, which would defy Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity.
Because the result seems impossible, CERN scientists are inviting the physics community to verify their measurements, according to a CERN spokesman.
Only two other labs can replicate CERN’s tests, which involved firing a neutrino beam from a particle accelerator at a detector 454 miles away. One, Chicago-based Fermilab, has agreed to start immediately. The other, Japan’s T2K experiment, has been on hold since the March earthquake.
Fermilab had its own faster-than-light result in 2007, but its value was diminished by its huge margin of error. The margin of error in the new CERN test, on the other hand, is only 10 nanoseconds.
If verified, CERN’s results would force scientists to rethink Einstein’s theory, which affects “pretty much everything in modern physics,” said CERN physicist John Ellis.
[ap]
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