At
least we now know that a technical glitch gave us the measurement
error. The Earth's content is simply not dense enough to push the
envelop here.
What
I would like to see now is a two magnitude improvement improvement in
sensitivity since we have come this far with the protocol and to then
figure out how we might run a similar experiment through the center
of the Earth and then through the center of the sun and even then to
run multiple lines that cuts a range of arcs through the two objects.
This
can provide a lower limit at least to variation even if nothing is
detected.
Neutrinos do not
exceed speed of light, according to latest experiment
New results from CERN
today would appear to confirm that last year’s findings by the
OPERA experiment which appeared to suggest that neutrinos could
travel faster than light were incorrect (Photo: Simone Cortesi)
By Adam Williams
08:39 June 8, 2012
New results from CERN
today would appear to confirm that last year’s findings by the
OPERA experiment which appeared to suggest that neutrinos could
travel faster than light were incorrect. A faulty element of the
experiment’s fiber optic timing system has been cited by CERN as a
likely cause for the error.
As we previously
reported, the OPERA collaborative experiment which joins CERN
scientists with their counterparts located 730 km (or 454 miles) away
at Italy's Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), found that
neutrons sent from the former to the latter location appeared to
reach their destination 60 nanoseconds sooner than photon light
particles. If true, this would seem to contradict Einstein's
restricted theory of relativity, which famously states that nothing
can travel faster than light in a vacuum and is the basis for much of
modern physics.
Despite repeating the
process 15,000 times with consistent findings, the OPERA team
cautioned skepticism until the results could be independently
verified and invited scientists to investigate the study’s
findings.
In order to arrive at
these new results, the flight of neutrinos passing once again from
CERN to the Gran Sasso Laboratory was measured, this time with four
separate experiments, Borexino, ICARUS, LVD and OPERA. On this
occasion, each of the experiments provided results which were
consistent with the speed of light having not been
exceeded. The episode apparently brings to a close one of the more
exciting potential findings deriving from the CERN laboratory which
hosts over two thousand full-time employees.
Appearing at the 25th
International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics in
Kyoto, CERN Research Director Sergio Bertolucci spoke of his
anticipation of receiving such findings:
“Although this
result isn’t as exciting as some would have liked,” said
Bertolucci, “it is what we all expected deep down.
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