After Einstein, the man who came with a new paradigm of physics that changed the world forever, we all have known that nothing can exceed the speed of light based on his brilliant theory of special relativity. Even though there are some skeptical physicists stated a hypothesis of particles that move faster than light which are called tachyons, but the existence of these hypothetical particles still have been a problem since their nature are unstable which are only approximately constant over time. However, a new research just releasing from CERN of tachyonic neutrinos' being may bring a big change in physics world and lead us to a new hope for one of the most gorgeous humans dream, the idea of travel in time.
According to “Speed-of-light results under scrutiny at Cern” on BBC news online, over three years and thousands of experiments of the hypothetical faster than light particles at Cern finally state an unbelievable result which threatens to upend a century of physics. The strange particles-tachyonic neutrinos which were produced in the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator at Cern were sent through the ground from Switzerland toward the Gran Sasso laboratory 732km away in Italy, then the consequences were the particles showed up 60 billionths of a second earlier than if they had travelled at the speed of light which mean these particles have broken the universe's ultimate speed limit. However, there are some systematic errors which may occur; therefore, as for now, the researcher team decided not to claim a certain conclusion until they can clearly understand this result.
Maybe this is the most interesting scientific topic this year, let’s try to imagine what will happen if those particles really can exceed the speed of light? First, it seem to defy the laws of nature that we assume, and the most interesting thing might be we would need to reconsider our physics knowledge since almost modern physics theory related to theory of special relativity-the SR. Moreover, the concept of causality would be broken. It doesn’t mean this result would directly beat Einstein’s theory but seem to be an addition. According to SR, time will slow down relating to an objects velocity. Under this theory, a particle with subluminal velocity needs infinite energy to accelerate to the speed of light; so, time would stop for an object moving at the speed of light, and if an object went faster than the speed of light, time would go in reverse. What I mean is time would be more flexible than the one-way arrow that we assume, we might use this particles innovate new technologies that can make us travel faster than light, and according to the SR thats means the idea of time-travel can become true.
As for now, we can’t talk too much about this until the scientists give us a confirmation, right now, they have been trying to prove this particles at another laboratories in Chicago and Japan. However, for me, whatever the final result will be, I still believe that the speed of light is not the universe’s ultimate speed limit and time-travel can be possible.
What do you all think?
Job,
ReplyDeleteI think the speed of light is not the universe’s ultimate speed limit,too.
People have explored few percent of the universe ,and there have been a lot of natural secrets humans have not known. Therefore, it is possible that a faster-than-light object exists somewhere.
I also thought this article was interesting when I read it on the BBC News and elsewhere a few days ago. In fact, there were stories about it almost everywhere - The New York Times, New Scientist (of course), and so on.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm a bit skeptical of time travel, at least in the usual sense of the term. If this result is true, Einstein's SR is wrong, so can longer be reliably be used to make predictions about what is possible. But it's a productive sort of idea to play around with.
I think time travel is fun to speculate about.
ReplyDeleteAnd it might even be possible in some ways. The physicist David Deutsch explains one way it could sort of work in his book The Fabric of Reality, which I recommend as a lay person's guide by one of the leaders of modern quantum physics.
I agree that there would be particles that move faster than light because I believe that there are many unknown laws of nature we don't still discover in scientific ways. This experiment by CERN itself shows that we human beings are trying to explore the principles. If this result is proved true, we will get a brilliant achievement after 106years. Of course, I hope that the result will be proved true, but I'm not sure that this will make time travel possible.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about Einstein's SR. However, this discovery seems to be very important to science and will affect to many earlier theories. I roughly calculated how fast it is and found that it is about 40,000 times faster than the speed of light. If anyone has already calculated it, please let me know, is it correct? With this speed, if we can make use of it, it may benefit many kinds of today's technology. For example, fiber optic technology ,which transfers data by using light, may use this particle instead of light.
ReplyDeleteGolf,
ReplyDeleteI think it's a tiny (tiny, tiny) fraction faster than the speed of light, but any amount greater than the speed of light would be serious for Einstein's theory.
______________________
I would make a weaker claim than Sunny's, not "that there would be particles that move faster than light", but that there could be such particles, and that the very careful, and cautiously announced results give some reason to think that there might be.
But I agree with Sunny's reasoning: science is very young, only having begun a few hundred years ago in the Enlightenment that also gave rise to the spread of democracy, critical thinking and tolerance (necessary for science?), so it's very likely, certainly possible, that our best explanations today are the correct explanations.
What I thought was great is that it shows that when an apparent fact or observation contradicts a very well supported theory, the standards for accepting that observation as correct must be very high - and that is exactly what the scientists at CERN are doing - before throwing out Einstein, they are asking others to try to prove them wrong because their observation is against so much of modern physics.
For exactly the same reason, any belief in ghosts, spirits, fortune telling and such things that also contradict most of science must have extremely solid evidence before it could ever be reasonable to belief they were true. Sadly, people who believe in astrology, magic and such things do not seem interested in such an honest approach to their beliefs which also contradict our best science.
I will watching to see the outcome. I think it's "a brilliant achievement," as Sunny says, whichever way it turns out. It's brilliant because it shows how far we have come in a very short time in understanding the universe we live in - almost all in only hte last 400 years or so when reason began to permanently replace authority as a guide to truth in every area.
@Golf
ReplyDeleteActually, Neutrinos are only 60 nano(billionths)seconds faster than light, about 0.0025 percent. For their benefits, I think we'll be able to know how using them someday, but not so soon since their nature are unstable and require a large particle accelerator to create.
Peter,(very tender voice)
ReplyDeleteyou mean that the word "could" has less possibility than the word "would"?
Sunny,
ReplyDeleteYes, that's what I meant.
(If I believe in magic, I would hire a wizard.) + (I do believe in magic.) = (I have hired a wizard,) which is a strong statement. Sorry, that's the best example I could think of quickly after an unexpectedly busy and late evening. I should be in bed!