CERN Experiment Excludes 1 Error In Faster-Than-Light Finding

GENEVA — The chances have risen that Einstein was wrong about a fundamental law of the universe.

Scientists at the world's biggest physics lab said Friday they have ruled out one possible error that could have distorted their startling measurements that appeared to show particles traveling faster than light.

Many physicists reacted with skepticism in September when measurements by French and Italian researchers seemed to show subatomic neutrino particles breaking what Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein considered the ultimate speed barrier.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research said more precise testing has now confirmed the accuracy of at least one part of the experiment.

"One key test was to repeat the measurement with very short beam pulses," the Geneva-based organization, known by its French acronym CERN, said in a statement.

The test allowed scientists to check if the starting time for the neutrinos was being measured correctly before they were fired 454 miles (730 kilometers) underground from Geneva to a lab in Italy.

The results matched those from the previous test, "ruling out one potential source of systematic error," said CERN.

Still, scientists stressed that only independent measurements by labs elsewhere would allow them to declare that the results of their experiment were a genuine finding.

"A measurement so delicate and carrying a profound implication on physics requires an extraordinary level of scrutiny," said Fernando Ferroni, president of Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics. "The positive outcome of the test makes us more confident in the result, although a final word can only be said by analogous measurements performed elsewhere in the world."

According to Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity, nothing is meant to be able to go faster than the speed of light – 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second).

But the researchers said in September that their neutrinos traveled 60 nanoseconds faster, when the margin of error in their experiment allowed for just 10 nanoseconds. A nanosecond is one-billionth of a second.

Comments

[Aaron Nemeth]

09:41 PM on 12/05/2011

Where does this notion that Enstein is infallible come from? Last I read it was called Einstein's Theory of Relativity­, opperative word being THEORY not law. I'm no scientist, let alone a physicist, but I thought that part of scientific study was testing theories and trying to prove them wrong? I think the problem all the nay-sayers have is that they aren't ready to advance and will fight with every fiber of their being to disprove it because it would negate all they have worked for. What's wrong with progress? I'm not saying that what is being claimed is 100% accurate, but I see no sense in fighting what has been found. I think the scientific world should embrace this and try to help further the study rather than pick it apart at the seams.

[Stubble Jumper]

10:27 PM on 12/25/2011

I have to agree with you. The main problem here is that too many scientists are too emotionally attached to Einstein’s theories; some even seem to be in love with them. Science should not be influenced by emotion; if that happens it becomes a religion and is ineffective as science. I am afraid that is what has happened in part to mainstream science. These days, new discoveries are not judged on their own merits, but are held up against Einstein’s theories, and if they do not pass the Einstein test, they are discarded and the people who made these discoveries are ridiculed. And that is a fact; I have experienced such treatment myself.

[MuchMadness]

12:01 AM on 11/21/2011

How can anyone believe in particles that last for such a short time? Some of those things are more fleeting than a Mitt Romney policy position.

[Lori Ladybug]

08:42 PM on 11/20/2011

Scientists in Italy say, "not so fast!"

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/20/us-science-neutrinos-idUSTRE7AJ0ZX20111120

This is all very fascinating.

[trp981]

01:43 PM on 11/20/2011

What is time?

[maslin]

08:26 PM on 11/20/2011

Why am I late?

[Cayce58]

12:36 PM on 11/20/2011

I have read a psychic that said science and religion will interconnect at some point. If this particle exists, we now work in 3 realities. The mega of Newton, the micro of Einstein and some reality that makes it possible to wake up and look at the clock the very second your mother dies.

[RunningBecky]

11:59 AM on 11/20/2011

Amazing. If this actually holds up and is validated, then besides the immense impact on our fundamental undestanding of physics it would have, what it also tells us is that basically, when one of our most sacred principles of physics, that nothing can travel faster then the speed of light is proven false, we really don't know NOTHING yet about physics and reality.
Great job CERN!
Huggs Becky

[Silken17]

09:28 PM on 11/20/2011

Even if faster than light neutrinos prove to be real, Special Relativity isn't going away. Too many of its conclusions have been proven true, like time dilation and mass increase with velocity.

[behavingbadly]

10:09 AM on 12/01/2011

Math isn't real—it's simply a tool for trying to explain and understand the REAL. Space-time is a mathematical construct. It may require nothing more than some creative tweaking of the math, perhaps a new constant, to explain the APPARENT anomaly. Worst case, we imagine some new type of string that explains it all—Celtic Knot, anyone?

[Social Construct]

04:13 AM on 11/20/2011

Cool. Keep it up, scientists. I, for one, find your search for answers enlightening, whether successful or not. And, thank you.

[ukwood]

10:07 PM on 11/19/2011

Seems like Einstein was FAR from wrong. Check out String Theory bringing Einstein and Quantum physics together quite brilliantly - actually making more sense of Einsteins thoery with more clarity .

[StephenJK]

12:46 AM on 11/20/2011

Einstein wasn't wrong about everything, however, I doubt he was right about everything. Especially regarding maximum speed of any particle in the universe. They didn't even know about all of them back then and certainly did not have the means to measure as they do today.

[RunningBecky]

12:03 PM on 11/20/2011

I wouldn't say that Einstein was wrong either. Just incomplete. In a sense he was a pioneer and all scientific pioneers get things wrong because it takes others to build upon their work and discover new insights that somebody like Einstein simply didn't know yet.
Now I'll leave quantum physics to you smart people. That stuff is just too wierd. I like my science to be straight and simple, two words that NEVER can be used in conjunction with quantum physics! But like a post I already made, quantum physics is a field we are just scratching and it'll be a long time before we truly undersand it.
Huggs Becky

[Dunkleberger Karl]

03:53 PM on 11/20/2011

RunningBecky : "Einstein was wrong either. Just incomplete­"If Maybery whacks a baseball and it heads for the out feild wall @ 360 feet and the Ball flies 300 feet high and comes down @ the 359 foot Mark from home plate , and is caught in a diving catch by Lou Brock ,You could say his hit was also"just incompleate! " Einstein is wrong! Observational science is equivelent of playing "peak a Boo ,with your baby! " We will find in the next 200 years that The spped of light is neither constant , nor the fastest things in the universe, that we can go faster than the speed of light, That time travel foward in time is a reality! and if we are around in 500 years we will find a way to travel back in time!

[LightShadow62]

05:55 PM on 11/19/2011

Einstein's work disproved much of Newton's theories and yet we still utilize Newtonian physics for much of the engineering that keeps our society running. Even if they manage to prove that sub-atomic or quantum particles can move faster than light they are still a very long way off from producing a set of standards to supersede Einstein's equations and the subsequent work that has been built on top of Einstein. If indeed they can ever turn this into a verifiable theory.

Also, before they can say that the particles are traveling faster than light they have to prove that their reference pulse isn't traveling slower that the accepted speed of light.

[Nigel Goodnow]

01:30 PM on 11/19/2011

Chances are, this joke has already made the rounds on this article, but it bears repeating:

"Hey!", the bartender shouted, "we don't serve your kind in here!"
A faster-than-light neutrino walks into a bar.

[RunningBecky]

12:06 PM on 11/20/2011

A joke only a scientist could truly appreciate!
Huggs Becky

[Dunkleberger Karl]

03:54 PM on 11/20/2011

Quark

[ottoleckmich]

01:02 PM on 11/19/2011

Defying the laws of nature?????
Who makes the laws of nature?
EINSTEIN?????

[JShankel]

02:30 PM on 11/19/2011

Yes, he wrote them.

[maslin]

08:28 PM on 11/20/2011

Your ? key might be stuck.

[Roadrun]

11:10 AM on 11/19/2011

I'm waiting for the race between quarks and neutrinos myself.

[Roadrun]

10:57 AM on 11/19/2011

Hopeless cheerleaders think this is like the Olympics and the neutrino is the Michael Phelps to Einstein and Mark Spitz.

That's not what makes the universe vibrate. It is all about the reference. Also, Newton's laws are still used every day because they still apply to the observable world and getting a rover to Mars. Light speed calculations are not wrong because if they are, everything you know falls apart right before your eyes (oops, your eyes also follow those principles).

[Air Vice Marshal Park]

10:25 AM on 11/19/2011

For over a century, people who bet against Einstein have lost all their money quickly.

[JShankel]

02:31 PM on 11/19/2011

Tell that to John Stewart Bell.

[ABQ-Mike]

10:01 AM on 11/19/2011

Back in '65, I'd put my GTO up against any neutrino in the Universe.

[Dunkleberger Karl]

03:59 PM on 11/20/2011

Back in '65', my dad broke the sound barrier ,with my sisters full diaper!