Neutrino Nuance
I can not resist commenting on the latest in subatomic physics. Back in September a group running an experiment at CERN released an interesting observation from their work: neutrinos were arriving, on average, sooner than predicted and sooner than light would have arrived.
Relevant particle physics in brief:
Stuff is either made of quarks or it is not. Particles made up of quarks (proton, neutron, pion) are called hadrons. Stuff not made up of quarks (electron, muon. neutrino) are called leptons. Also, every particle has an antiparticle. Don’t freak out it just means that every particle has an opposite (in terms of properties other than mass). Most folks are familiar with the electron which is a subatomic particle (smaller than the atom). The anti particle to the electron would be the antielectron which has actually been named the positron. The positron has the opposite charge of an electron but the same mass.
Now then . . .
It turns out there is a particle called the muon and a particle called the tau. The electron, muon and tau each have their own neutrino associated with them so their are 6 leptons in total. So you have the electron, muon, tau, electron neutrino, muon neutrino and tau neutrino. Neutrinos have no charge, very little mass, and interact with regular matter very infrequently. Neutrinos can be produced by a muon decaying into an electron which produces a muon neutrino and an electron antineutrino. Also an antimuon can decay into an antielectron (positron) and an electron neutrino and a muon antineutrino. Below are the equations describing those two potential decays. (The u looking letter is the negative muon and positive antimuon. The e is the negative electron and positive positron. The v looking letters are neutrinos, the subscript indicates what kind of neutrino (tau, electron, muon). Since neutrinos have no charge (+,-) the bar over the top indicates it is an antiparticle instead of a particle.
So CERN (its an acronym that doesn’t matter here) is a place on the Switzerland/France boundary near Geneva (roughly speaking). Physicists make particles go really fast in a circle underground via powerful magnetic fields etc. and then smash them into/through stuff (other particles) and set up detectors to see what happens, what is produced, how fast, how massive etc.
A project at CERN called OPERA (its an acronym and the names don’t matter here), which was not looking for or intending to focus on the observations made, noticed that the neutrinos being produced at CERN were, on average, arriving at the particle detectors in Italy, 450 miles away, early and in fact earlier than photons would have.
Einstein:
About one hundred years ago Einstein brought forth the idea that the speed of light is a unversal constant that cannot be surpassed. Along with that is the relationship between energy and mass, E=mc2. This equation only refers to the energy associated with the rest mass of a particle (as if it is simply sitting and existing). If the particle is moving then the equation looks like: E2=m2c4 + p2c2. So you have energy associated with the particle existing plus the kinetic energy associated with the particle moving. At any rate what happens when a mass (a particle) is accelerated towards the speed of light, the particle’s mass increases which requires more energy to continue accelerating the particle toward the speed of light and as it speeds up it gets more massive requiring more energy to continue to accelerate it toward the speed of light and that continues. In summary we arrive at a seeming reality that as a particle approaches the speed of light its mass approaches infinity requiring infinitely more energy to increase its velocity making it impossible for the particle to actually attain a velocity of c (the speed of light).
So as far as we know, particles (unless they cheat) cannot make the speed of light. The OPERA experiment shows particles (neutrinos: super unmassive, and neutrally charged) are beating light to the finish line. It will be interesting to see the results as research groups work to reproduce the results and investigate there processes in an attempt to locate areas of potential mismeasurement and/or misunderstanding. From what I have heard there is a sense of great skepticism regarding neutrinos actually exceeding the speed of light. In the end I am glad God has everything in His hands, but it sure is fascinating to be able to explore the great order and complexity of processes He has made in this universe.
