THE OPERA EXPERIMENT September 23, 2011

WAS EINSTEIN WRONG?

Dear Reader

Some years ago I used to know a bit about Physics. Nowadays I know a bit less. Nonetheless when you read that some claim that they have found neutrinos that exceed the speed of light you remember what you learned in the 20th century and then you realize that this is a very crazy news.

During next months or years scientists will try to support or rebuff this experiment. Unfortunately I doubt that I can follow all that happens during so much time. So what I will try is just to write during these hours, days or weeks about the Opera experiment. Needless to say that I do all this because I want to understand all I can about the Opera experiment. It is obvious that I cannot repeat the experiment myself (although I am not very far from CERN!) but it would be for me a satisfaction to understand all I can about this experiment. Just the thought that I could point some objection (or not!) to the experiment results would make me happy.

This is the century of Internet so that now people who make “crazy” discoveries are not alone like in old times. Now, thanks to Internet, the “intelligence” of humankind can be put together.

Well, the first I will do is to read all I can about the experiment. I will try to put here things I learn. It is for me to have the things more clear but anybody is welcome of course to read “my notes”.

This blog is mostly thought for the people who know a bit about Physics or that have interest in Physics but that are not scientists. So do not expect me to be very “serious” in my writings …

Well, let me start by reading http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1109/1109.4897.pdf

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Well, I just have had a quick read of the above link (Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam) It is almost 5 a CET and I must go to sleep. For now I only can say that even if there are aspects of the experiment that are difficult to understand others are not so difficult. So the creation of the neutrinos in CERN are a mystery to me. But when the article writes about the clocks and the measure of the distance then I could read all more comfortably. The part of the earthquake and the shift of the distance is very nice to read because it brings the experiment to something one can understand at this point. It is obvious that a lot of work has to be done to assume or rebuff the results (there are a lot of details to take into account) Wisely, the people doing the experiment have focused on the experiment and not in the consequences of the experiment if the results are right. Well, this is another option … I imagine that because of this new option it is very important that as soon as possible the scientific community supports or rebuffs these results! If they were right a new world of Physics is open! It is not something without importance the limit of the speed of light in the relativity theory! It changes everything if this result is right!

WEB OF THE OPERA EXPERIMENT: http://operaweb.lngs.infn.it/

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