Another Strike Against Light-Speed Neutrinos

What’s the Latest Development?

A team of physicists from Israel’s Tel Aviv University says the neutrinos which were reported to have traveled faster than light speed last September could not have done so without violating the principle of the conservation of energy. That is because “the rules for inheriting energy treat slow-moving particles differently from those moving close to the speed of light. If the neutrinos did begin their lives moving faster than light, then their slower muon siblings should have gotten the lion’s share of their parents’ energy.”

What’s the Big Idea?

This latest objection to the OPERA experiment in Gran Sasso, Italy, which originally reported on the faster-than-light-speed neutrinos, adds to the list of theoretical objections to the results. “The most popular so far claims that if the particles ever broke the speed of light, they would quickly radiate away their energy and slow down.” OPERA team member Luca Stanco, who did not sign his team’s original results over concerns they were too preliminary, is asking for an urgent verification of the study.

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