Neutrino faster than light. Opera vs Supernova and MINOS observations theory.

[pauldodd123]

This 'speculation' attempts to give a possible answer to the inconsistency between the pre-2011 experiments on the speed of Neutrinos and the latest OPERA experiments that show Neutrino's travelling faster than light.

 

The pre-2011 experiments show the speed of Neutrinos at around c from the MINOS detectors in 2007 and around c from the Supernova 1987A.

This speculation attempts to answer how these results hold and also the the OPERA experiment which shows faster than light speed.

My theory is that the neutrinos tend towards the speed of light even though their initial speed is 'boosted' by the energy that created the neutrino.

I.e. With larger energy and shorter distances then the initial burst of speed would have greater impact on the observation and be observed as faster than light (as in the OPERA experiment)

With smaller energy and longer distances then the initial burst of speed would reach the speed of light well before the observation and therefore record a speed very close to light.

The Graph below is to illustrate only. The average speed for each being nearly c for the Supernova and Minos and being greater than c for the OPERA.

I'm not sure if this is obvious, but thought I'd share anyway. thoughts?

 

 

 

[timo]

There is no graph below that I could see. But if I understand you correctly you say that the neutrinos get some faster-than-lightspeed kick when they are produced but then proceed flying with lightspeed (or slow down to it over time)? That is a statement compatible with both data sets (I think the error bars on the MINOS data are so large that you can ignore them for the debate). But: It's just a fit on the data that has no other motivation than the desire to hit the data points.

 

I don't quite see why you put MINOS and the supernova in one pot and OPERA in the other. MINOS is an experiment like OPERA, and they also measured v>c, just with error bars that made the measurement inconclusive.

[pauldodd123]

Hi there,

 

I've attached the graph now, so hopefully that works instead.

 

Yes you are correct with what I am saying, that neutrinos get some faster-than-lightspeed kick when they are produced. The OPERA showed above light speed including the error bars, but with the Minos, like you say, with V>C then this theory still holds, however the from the graph you can see thtat the kick is less so the average V is closer to C.

 

The way I was thinking about it was like running in a large crowd. You end up running the same speed as everyone else, even if you give a large burst of energy at the start. Whether the rest of the crowd are other Neutrinos, or some other force, I don't know.

 

I guess the only way to prove the 'inital burst' theory would be either to

 

a) set up a test where the same energy was used to produce the neutrino and the beam was obseverd at different distances from the end. Observe if the speed reduces down to c. #

b) set up a test with different energy's producing the burst, and measured at the same distance.

 

I guess we'll have to wait some more years. any more thoughts appreciated.

 

Paul