Study Rejects Claim Particles Traveled Faster than Light
An international team of scientists in Italy have rejected another group of researchers’ claims last week that neutrino particles travelled faster than light.
Scientists at the ICARUS experiment at Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy, said their findings "refute a superluminal (faster than light) interpretation of the OPERA result," according to a study published on Saturday.
The paper can be read here.
ICARUS scientists argue that the neutrinos should have lost most of their energy if they had travelled at even a tiny fraction faster than the light.
In the ICARUS experiment, the neutrino beam tested in their equipment, registered an energy spectrum fully corresponding with what it should be for particles traveling at the speed of light and no more.
The "faster than light" particle claim was made by a team of scientists of the OPERA experiment (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tracking Apparatus) that was also working at Gran Sasso. The OPERA experiment made the original claim in September but replicated the results and made them public Friday.
OPERA's scientists said the neutrinos traveled 60 billionths of a second faster than light.
The finding seemed to suggest that Albert Einstein's theory of relativity was wrong, undermining the basic principles of modern physics.
But the OPERA's experiment has yet to be reviewed by the scientific community. If proven right, it would require profound changes in the way scientists now understand space and time.