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Faster Than Light?

Daniel Scully
December 07, 2011

Faster Than Light?

In response to the exciting news from an experiment at CERN that neutrinos may be travelling faster than the speed of light, I presented a Christmas Lecture for a general audience in The University of Warwick's Department of Physics.

It begins by introducing Particle Physics: what it's about and where our current knowledge is. Then we focused in on neutrinos, the particles believed to be travelling fast-than-light, before looking at how the OPERA experiment went about measuring their speed. The final few slides were dedicated to discussing the consequences this has for our current understanding of physics, and some of the places it might lead us in the future.

You can watch the video here: http://vimeo.com/33665154

Daniel Scully

December 07, 2011
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Transcript

  1. Neutrino Oscillations Source Flavours Solar ν e → ν e

    Atmospheric ν μ → ν τ MINOS ν μ → ν μ Reactor ν e → ν e OPERA ν μ → ν τ T2K ν μ → ν e NOvA ν μ → ν e
  2. Special Relativity Physics is the same for all observers, regardless

    of their relative speeds The speed of light is the same for all observers E = mc2 Nothing can go faster than the speed of light
  3. Supernova 1987a Neutrinos arrived 3hours early If OPERA is right,

    the neutrinos would have arrived 4years early
  4. Rare Particles Left over from Big Bang Need to be

    ~10m Only affects neutrinos But if... then how?
  5. Image Credits 1, 62. Sandbox Studio 14. CERN Bulletin http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1345733

    15, 54. http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/star/supernova/pr1999004e/ 16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chooz_-_Centrale_nucléaire_-1.jpg 18. WMAP 19. T2K 21, 22. CERN 24. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gran_sasso_italia.jpg 25. INFN 30. http://www.flickr.com/photos/paperfa/2457059915 47. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Einstein_1921_portrait2.jpg 53. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Demolition_Bacinol_2009.JPG