Speed of Light NOT Broken, Says New Study

Neutrinos would have lost energy if they broke the universal constant, according to a rival team of physicists.

Huh. Just days after the researchers at the CERN particle accelerator and the Gran Sasso laboratory backed up their claim that they broke the speed of light, a newer study says that claim is bunk. The CERN team had blasted neutrinos from the Swiss lab toward Gran Sasso, Italy, some 700 kilometres away. They reported that the neutrinos had arrived faster than they would have had they been bound by the speed of light, a constant that underpins Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. But another team of scientists based at Gran Sasso is now saying that's not possible. Via Reuters:

They argue, on the basis of recently published studies by two top U.S. physicists, that the neutrinos pumped down from CERN, near Geneva, should have lost most of their energy if they had travelled at even a tiny fraction faster than light.

But in fact, the scientists say, the neutrino beam as tested in their equipment registered an energy spectrum fully corresponding with what it should be for particles traveling at the speed of light and no more.

The case is far from settled. A Japanese team is set to try to duplicate the CERN lab's original findings, as is another in Chicago.

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