Neutrino speed. What happens if this proves to be a fact?

[rigney]

How will this finding effect the standard model?

 

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-09/baffling-cern-results-show-neutrinos-moving-faster-speed-light

[insane_alien]

well, basically it will point out to use that there are modifications needed to relativity for a start.

 

further investigation of the phenomenon, different energies of neutrinos etc, will allow us to determine what modifications are needed.

 

i'm not so sure how it affects the standard model but there will probably be ramifications there as well.

 

who knows, this might just be the result we need to get a grand unified theory.

 

I love science, any result is a good result. epsecially if it leads to some of the safest assumptions going down the toilet (such as nothing can go faster than the speed of light).

 

I'm still skeptical that the result is real but i really really hope that it is.

[rigney]

well, basically it will point out to use that there are modifications needed to relativity for a start.

 

further investigation of the phenomenon, different energies of neutrinos etc, will allow us to determine what modifications are needed.

 

i'm not so sure how it affects the standard model but there will probably be ramifications there as well.

 

who knows, this might just be the result we need to get a grand unified theory.

 

I love science, any result is a good result. epsecially if it leads to some of the safest assumptions going down the toilet (such as nothing can go faster than the speed of light).

 

I'm still skeptical that the result is real but i really really hope that it is.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, if neutrinos are made of quarks and quarks are smaller, could it be that quarks are even faster? And if we find an alternative or something smaller than a quark, what then? I have a lot of questions, but few if any answers. Edited December 29, 2011 by rigney

[insane_alien]

neutrinos aren't made of quarks. you are thinking of neutrons.

 

as far as we can tell, neutrinos are a fundimental particle.

[rigney]

neutrinos aren't made of quarks. you are thinking of neutrons.

 

as far as we can tell, neutrinos are a fundimental particle.

Thanks for straightening me out. I am not the best at explaining anything scientific, and most times get it wrong. Another article I was reading sort of threw me under the bus. There is just too much information out there for me to digest. But if CERN hangs on for a while there may be many more discoveries to sharpen good scientific minds.

Perhaps you've read this article? Comments at the end are somewhat diverse.

http://tech.mit.edu/V131/N44/cern.html

Edited December 30, 2011 by rigney

[pantheory]

How will this finding effect the standard model?

 

http://www.popsci.co...ter-speed-light

To allow for neutrino speeds faster than light not only Special Relativity would need to be altered or replaced, but also the standard model of particle physics and particle decay rate formulations would need to be changed or replaced.

 

http://www.scienceda...11223114121.htm

//

Edited December 30, 2011 by pantheory

[ajb]

The way I see it (assuming they do travel at speed > c ) is either neutrinos are rather "conventional tachyons", which would be very hard to understand via quantum field theory, or they are more exotic and have some novel dispersion relation. It maybe possible to construct quantum field theories that incorporate these novel dispersion relations but these are going to be Lorentz violating theories. Much of our understanding of quantum field theory, and in particular the "particle aspects" comes down to Lorentz invariance.

 

Very mild breaking of Lorentz symmetry may be okay and understood in quantum field theory, but strong violation I expect would be more problamatic. There are plenty of rather technical questions one could ask at this point.

 

 

One would most likely have to modify all we know about special relativity and then general relativity. Much of modern physics would then require careful attention.

 

To allow for neutrino speeds faster than light not only Special Relativity would need to be altered or replaced, but also the standard model of particle physics and particle decay rate formulations would need to be changed or replaced.

 

Right, if neutrinos are "conventional tachyons" then they cannot really be understood as particles in the usual sense of QFT. Tachyons have an imaginary mass and this basically equates to them being unstable. Tachyons would quickly decay. This would have to be taken into accound when looking at scattering processes or beta decay.