Neutrino experiment affirms faster-than-light claim
One set of concerns centered on the relatively long timescale – 10.5 microseconds, or 10.5 millionths of a second – of the proton pulses produced at CERN that result in the neutrino pulses OPERA detects. OPERA did not know whether individual neutrinos received at Gran Sasso corresponded to protons early or late in the proton pulse, creating uncertainty around their detection of them. In October OPERA therefore asked CERN to generate shorter proton pulses lasting just 3 nanoseconds. They have now recorded 20 events in the new data run and say that they have reached a similar level of statistical significance to the first time around, with the neutrinos again reaching Gran Sasso 60 nanoseconds faster than a light beam would do.
However,
But concerns about the experiment’s use of the Global Positioning System to synchronize clocks at each end of the neutrino beam are unlikely to be as easily allayed, The use of GPS is novel in the field of high energy and particle physics and the same system was used for both the original experiment and the new run.
I must point out that GPS common-view is not a novel technique outside of high energy and particle physics.
Accept a massed particle exceeding lightspeed, search for a systematic error, or invent a footnote. The first is Tinkerbell’s butt dust, the last is Wesley Crusher physics. Find the 18-meter timing synchronization error – a contraindication of future grant funding for the PI.
I’m still impressed with how well they managed to get their GPS to work underground. Mine tends to punk out when the tree canopy gets thick. Then again, they’re highly trained physicists and I’m just some guy lost in the woods.
The projection from the surface to the underground position is one of the potential errors. It’s one of those things that the MINOS experiment might have measured differently, so we’ll have to wait for their result.