c****t
发帖数: 19049 | 1 (Reuters) - Scientists around the world said on Friday the discovery of sub-
atomic particles apparently traveling faster than light could force a major
rethink of theories on the makeup of the cosmos, but the findings would
first have to be independently confirmed.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and this is an
extraordinary claim," eminent cosmologist and astrophysicist Martin Rees
told Reuters.
The CERN research institute near Geneva said measurements over three years
had shown neutrinos pumped to a receiver in Gran Sasso, Italy, had arrived
60 nanoseconds sooner than light would have done -- a tiny difference that
could nonetheless undermine Albert Einstein's 1905 special theory of
relativity.
"It is premature to comment on this," Professor Stephen Hawking, the world's
most well-known physicist, told Reuters. "Further experiments and
clarifications are needed."
Professor Jenny Thomas, who works on neutrinos at CERN's friendly rival
Fermilab near Chicago in the United States, commented: "The impact of this
measurement, were it to be correct, would be huge."
Professor Geoffrey Hall of London's Imperial College, who has worked with
CERN, said the implications of the results were profound, possibly
challenging "a fundamental part of our science culture."
CERN's own research director Sergio Bertolucci said if the findings were
confirmed -- and at least two separate laboratories are likely to start work
on this in the near future -- "it might change our view of physics."
The high level of caution is normal in science where anything that could be
a breakthrough discovery, especially overturning well-established thinking,
is in principle always checked and rechecked by other researchers.
The discovery would force a rethink of fundamental theories of physics and
of the nature of the universe. It would herald a revolution in physics
comparable to that caused by Einstein's publication of his Special Theory of
Relativity.
In a comment issued by CERN, the world's leading laboratory for particle
research on the edge of Geneva, Bertolucci underscored this principle.
"When an experiment finds an apparently unbelievable result and can find no
artefact of the measurement to account for it, it is normal to invite
broader scrutiny....it is good scientific practice," he said.
The experiment, whose measurements were posted on the scientific website
arxiv.org/abs/1109.4897 overnight, found the long enigmatic neutrinos
consistently traveling at an average of 60 nanoseconds faster than light.
GHOST PARTICLES
The team, working in an experiment dubbed OPERA, pumped neutrinos -- often
called ghost particles because they pass through matter, and human bodies,
unnoticed -- from CERN 730 kms (500 miles) to Gran Sasso south of Rome.
Over three years, and from 15,000 neutrino "events," a huge detector at the
Italian center deep under mountain rock recorded what OPERA spokesman
Antonio Ereditato described as the "startling" findings.
He said his team had high confidence they had measured correctly and
excluded any possibility of some outside influence, or artefact, affecting
the outcome. "My dream is now that other colleagues find we are right," he
added.
In Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, which underpins the current view
of how the universe works, nothing can travel faster than light -- 300,000
kms, or 186,000 miles, per second -- because its mass would become
impossibly infinite.
Einstein's theory has been tested thousands of times over the past 106 years
and only recently have there been just slight hints that the behavior of
some elementary particles of matter might not fit into it.
These hints were detected last year in Fermilab's MINOS experiment with
neutrinos, but -- unlike those of OPERA -- were found to be within a normal
margin of error.
Fermilab's Thomas, who is likely to be involved in MINOS experiments to
check the CERN-Gran Sasso measurements, said if they were correct "it would
overturn everything we thought we understood about relativity and the speed
of light."
Ereditato, a physicist who also works at the Einstein Institute in the
University of Berne, said the potential impact on science "is too large to
draw any immediate conclusions or attempt physics interpretations."
SURPRISING WITH MYSTERIES
Also declining to claim a genuine scientific discovery before other
researchers had confirmed them, he said the neutrino, whose existence was
first confirmed in 1934, "is still surprising us with its mysteries."
Scientific bloggers on the Internet said the particle might be slipping into
and out of dimensions, other than the known four of length, breadth, depth
and time, as predicted by the controversial "string theory" of how the
cosmos works.
The OPERA team is due to formally present its findings to the scientific
community later on Friday at CERN, home to the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC
, which is smashing particles together in research on how the universe began | M**i
发帖数: 13701 | 2 好长，没仔细看，不过很早以前不就提出，隧道效应会产生超光速吗？80年代的时候就
有了
sub-
major
【在 c****t 的大作中提到】
: (Reuters) - Scientists around the world said on Friday the discovery of sub-
: atomic particles apparently traveling faster than light could force a major
: rethink of theories on the makeup of the cosmos, but the findings would
: first have to be independently confirmed.
: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and this is an
: extraordinary claim," eminent cosmologist and astrophysicist Martin Rees
: told Reuters.
: The CERN research institute near Geneva said measurements over three years
: had shown neutrinos pumped to a receiver in Gran Sasso, Italy, had arrived
: 60 nanoseconds sooner than light would have done -- a tiny difference that
| c****t
发帖数: 19049 | 3 http://www.mitbbs.com/article0/SciFiction/31248529_0.html
【在 M**i 的大作中提到】
: 好长，没仔细看，不过很早以前不就提出，隧道效应会产生超光速吗？80年代的时候就
: 有了
:
: sub-
: major
| M**i
发帖数: 13701 | 4 看好了，不理解，等进一步证据吧
sub-
major
【在 c****t 的大作中提到】
: (Reuters) - Scientists around the world said on Friday the discovery of sub-
: atomic particles apparently traveling faster than light could force a major
: rethink of theories on the makeup of the cosmos, but the findings would
: first have to be independently confirmed.
: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and this is an
: extraordinary claim," eminent cosmologist and astrophysicist Martin Rees
: told Reuters.
: The CERN research institute near Geneva said measurements over three years
: had shown neutrinos pumped to a receiver in Gran Sasso, Italy, had arrived
: 60 nanoseconds sooner than light would have done -- a tiny difference that
| M**i
发帖数: 13701 | 5 以前就总被时间旅行的逻辑弄迷糊
如果回到过去，就必然改变那段历史，那么必然已经被记录了，是这样吗
【在 c****t 的大作中提到】
: http://www.mitbbs.com/article0/SciFiction/31248529_0.html
| c****t
发帖数: 19049 | | M**i
发帖数: 13701 | 7 谢谢包子，饿了好多天了，我细嚼慢咽一下
【在 c****t 的大作中提到】
: 你真有钻的精神，赏个！
|
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