Amazement As Particles 'Beat Light Speed'

Started by Snokio, September 23, 2011, 11:59:42 PM

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Snokio

September 23, 2011, 11:59:42 PM
Scientists have found that particles can move faster than the speed of light :blink:, so thats disproving Einsteins theory of relativity :blink:

It's strange as you are brought up with the concept that nothing can be faster, it's physics!! :taz:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/scientists-proved-einstein-theory-wrong-230650760.html

Very interesting, although what makes you think what will come of this discovery :g:
​ Bring on the randomness!
Apparently I actually exist! Or maybe it was the drink?

T-Bag

#1
September 24, 2011, 12:02:07 PM
Scientists **suspect** particles have gone faster than the speed of light. I have no idea of their experimental setup but systematic error of the order of 60ns although large on the scale of modern clocks, isn't that hard.

The speed of light is 299 792 458 m/s which means that they have to know the distance between the two experiments to within 17m. You can't compare directly between two signals following the same path either, neutrinos will pass straight through rock, light doesn't you'd have to run fibres along the path for the light (it would travel slower than the 3x10^8m/s but if you know the refractive index you can work that out). What I'm trying to say is I want another experiment to confirm this before I buy into it.

The press like to pick up on stories like this before the facts are in, it's interesting, but far from confirmed.
Juggling Hard Disks over concrete floors ends in tears 5% of the time.

Snokio

#2
September 24, 2011, 12:36:42 PM
maybe their tech is out of sync, it's a very fine line at those speeds


Slightly off topic, but remember that supernova (exploding star) earlier in the month? that was 21 million light years away (Lightyear = 186,282 miles per second), the star actually exploded 21 million years ago and we only seen it now :blink:

Whats more scary, thats relatively small distance by astronomical standards :blink:
​ Bring on the randomness!
Apparently I actually exist! Or maybe it was the drink?

TeaLeaf

#3
September 24, 2011, 12:50:43 PM
The main bit will be the statistical margin of error.  If they have miscalculated the margin of error they might get what looks like a statistically valid result showing higher than light speed, but if the margin for error was miscalculated and is really much higher then the result may be statistically invalid.  The US group had a similar problem a couple of years ago iirc.
TL.
Wisdom doesn\'t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.  (Tom Wilson)
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. (Michael Jordan)

TeaLeaf

#4
November 21, 2011, 11:57:53 AM
Nice read here for those interested in the technical detail of the repeated, but improved experiment.  It's a preprint version of the article submitted the Journal of High Energy Physics:

http://inspirehep.net/record/928153/files/arXiv:1109.4897.pdf?version=2
TL.
Wisdom doesn\'t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.  (Tom Wilson)
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. (Michael Jordan)

T-Bag

#5
November 21, 2011, 02:21:16 PM
They've covered all the obvious bases. They know the distance to within centimeters, the know the time to within nanoseconds. The short pulses mean they've avoided the old PDF problems which could have happened. I don't know where the fault is (I'd have to be pretty smart to spot it when thousands are still undecided) but I still think this boils down to a systematic error.

The more I read the fewer places I can see for it to be presumably the detection process since they know the event timing, distance and syncronisation very well.

I'm still not ready to believe that a massive particle can travel faster than the speed of light, no matter how strange neutrinos are.
Juggling Hard Disks over concrete floors ends in tears 5% of the time.

vladic

#6
December 04, 2011, 07:32:37 PM
The reprecussions of this if they have correctly recorded a partical breaking Einsteins theory is basicly gonna be a massive F*** you to modern phsics as we know them effectivly throwing most science limitations etc based on that theory out of the window, hell it may even prove some old theories were correct.

ArithonUK

#7
December 04, 2011, 09:44:38 PM
It's a big wet raspberry to all those people who said faster-than-light travel wasn't possible! Warp factor 5 Mr. Sulu....

T-Bag

#9
February 23, 2012, 11:28:02 AM
Well that is a relief. We can go back to normal now. I bet the 3-4 experiments which have upgraded to verify/disprove this results will either be happy they got the funding for new equipment before this, or sad that they spent the money...

But it's essential to verify scientific results so I guess it's not all bad.
Juggling Hard Disks over concrete floors ends in tears 5% of the time.

Blunt

#10
February 23, 2012, 01:09:45 PM
SOLVED!
Seems a "bad connection" was to blame
Lameduck's post didn't happen, it was a bad connection :P
Regards
Blunt

People who blow things out of proportion are worse than Hitler.

smilodon

#11
February 23, 2012, 01:46:07 PM
But still we have no reconciliation between the theory of general relativity and quantum mechanics.... rats!
smilodon
Whatever's gone wrong it's not my fault.

TeaLeaf

#12
February 23, 2012, 04:00:40 PM
Quote from: smilodon;345161But still we have no reconciliation between the theory of general relativity and quantum mechanics.... rats!
I think they we're going to do that tomorrow night in the wine bar?

:whistle:
TL.
Wisdom doesn\'t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.  (Tom Wilson)
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. (Michael Jordan)
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