F. COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
OPERA's physics coordinator Dario Auterio (left) and spokesman Antonio Ereditato have resigned.
The team that last year reported measurements showing neutrinos travelling faster than light has confirmed that two sources of error flagged in February explain the findings.
Analyses presented internally on 28 March and posted publicly on 30 March show that the measurements were skewed by a combination of a faulty cable and flawed timing in the experiment’s master clock. The group plans to repeat its measurements before definitively scotching the possibility of superluminal travel, first announced in September 20111.
The OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tracking Apparatus) collaboration admitted to two possible sources of error on 22 February (see “Faster-than-light neutrino measurement has two possible errors”), but stressed that the collaboration had not quantified them and did not know whether they explained the result.
“We have now an indication [along] that line,” says Dario Autiero of the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Lyons, France, and, until last week, OPERA's physics coordinator.
Autiero resigned from the collaboration on 30 March, a day after OPERA spokesman Antonio Ereditato of the University of Bern. The moves followed months of internal tension and media leaks and, last week, votes of no confidence in Ereditato and Autiero by OPERA’s collaboration board, which consists of representatives from its member institutions.
After the motions won a majority — although not the two-thirds of votes required to force the leadership out — the two men stepped down voluntarily.
Time warp
OPERA’s September 2011 result made headlines around the world and prompted a rush of theoretical papers attempting to reconcile the result with the impossibility of superluminal travel dictated by Einstein’s special theory of relativity.
The experiment timed neutrinos produced at CERN, Europe's premiere particle-physics laboratory near Geneva in Switzerland, as they arrived 730 kilometres away at OPERA's underground detector at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. High-precision atomic clocks stationed at each end of the beam were synchronized using the Global Positioning System (GPS). The team reported in September 2011 that neutrinos arrived at Gran Sasso 60 nanoseconds faster than a light beam would do.
But measurements made in December 2011 found that a GPS signal took 73 nanoseconds longer to pass along an 8-kilometre-long optical fibre linking the receiver to the underground master clock than the 2006 measurement used to calibrate the study. The shift, due to a faulty connection, would have shortened the apparent journey time of the neutrinos by that amount.
However, the measurement also suffered from an additional error, with OPERA’s master clock running fast during the experiment — by 124 nanoseconds per second. In combination, the two faults produce an overall error of around 60 nanoseconds (see “Timing glitches dog neutrino claim”).
OPERA plans to test this hypothesis by repeating its measurement in May, with the faults fixed.
“Puzzle apparently solved, through excellent detective work,” comments theoretical physicist Matthew Strassler of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, on his blog. But Strassler also questions why the checks that led to the errors being discovered weren't done before OPERA made its result public.
In a statement released on 30 March, Ereditato defended the decision to announce first and check later. He insists it was right for OPERA to release an “uncomfortable” result for scrutiny, and then seek an instrumental or methodological effect that might explain it.
“This is a natural part of the canons of scientific process. Science forges ahead in the land of the unknown by taking two steps forward and one step back, making corrections and learning from its mistakes,” Ereditato says.
- Journal name:
- Nature
- DOI:
- doi:10.1038/nature.2012.10371
I really don't think there is a need to enter a new Higgs field so that to explain the nature of formation mass of elementary particles. To solve the problem of formation of the mass need to be developed the ideas of Einstein's curved space-time. This was done in the theory of Superunification. biophysical rehab programs
I've two reasons for to consider the outcome of the OPERA experiments rather suspicious.
1) We have read, that the misinterpretation of OPERA results were caused with two errors, one has lead to the positive deviation, the second one has lead to the negative deviation. At the end of the whole story suddenly only one source of experimental failure (i.e. loose optical cable) was considered – why?
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/02/faster-than-light-neutrino-measurement-has-two-possible-errors.html
2) The poor connection of optical cable doesn't explain the published dependence of the neutrino delay on the neutrino frequency, which fits the previous experimental finding so "well". It seems for me, one of the sets of results was essentially fabricated and now the only question is, which one: the first published one – or the "correction", released six months later?
http://cr4.globalspec.com/PostImages/201110/Majorana_neutrinos_05EA412B-E679-1A3F-5B58E2071E02EF89.jpg
Experiments on the neutrino accompanied scandals and reduced funding. It should not be done. The study of neutrino properties are important for theorists to know the structure of the Universe.
Neutrino physicists in the U.S. have begun to regroup after a disappointing setback last week, when they learned the Department of Energy would not support the budget of a major proposed experiment.
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2012/04/04/physicists-mobilize-to-rescue-u-s-neutrino-experiment/comment-page-1/#comment-447896
Financing of projects to study the properties of neutrinos can save only the theory of Superunification.
The theory of Superunification predicts the properties of neutrinos, which does not describe in the Standard Model:
1. The neutrino has no mass
2. The structure of the electron neutrino includes two whole electric quarks (+1e and -1e) which also have no mass. The electron neutrino is an electric dipole.
3. Electron neutrinos can be combined into clusters representing other forms of neutrinos.
4. In the theory of Superunification discovered a zone antigravity repulsion around the quarks inside of the neutrino at a distance less than the classical electron radius. For this reason, the neutrino has a very small interaction cross section.
5. The neutrino has negative mass (minus-mass) which does not increase with increasing speed to the speed of light. This fact does not contradict Einstein's theory. This is proved in the theory of Superunification which built on the Einstein's concept of curved space-time:
1. Leonov V. S. Quantum Energetics. Volume 1. Theory of Superunification.
Cambridge International Science Publishing, 2010, 745 pages.
2. V.S. Leonov. Quantum Energetics: Theory of Superunification.
Viva Books, India, 2011, 732 pages.
Chapters:
4 The quantised structure of the electron and the positron. The neutrino.
4.14 Annihilation of the electron and the positron.
4.18 Tunnelling of the charge and wave transfer of electron mass.
6 Two-rotor structure of the photon. Photon gyroscopic effect.
I'm like an expert can help my American colleagues to conduct effective research on neutrinos and with less cost. This applies to the European program OPERA.
For Professor Antonio Ereditato
Dear Antonio, I support you and your important research to determine the maximum speed of the neutrino. You should not have resigned. If you will be able to prove experimentally that the speed of neutrinos is equal to the speed of light, it is also a remarkable achievement. We can add to the photon neutrino, which can reach the speed of light. This is possible only if there is no neutrinos have mass. This result does not contradict Einstein's theory. This is a remarkable achievement deserves a Nobel Prize in Physics.
I wish success.
The author of the theory of Superunification
Dr. Vladimir Leonov
e-mail: leonquanton@gmail.com
blogs:
http://www.blogger.com/profile/03427189015718990157
http://leonov-leonovstheories.blogspot.com/
http://theoryofsuperunification-leonov.blogspot.com/
Dear Antonio! Thanks for the answer.
I insist that your research to determine the speed of the neutrino is the only positive result that is obtained at the LHC. Higgs boson has not been detected because it contradicts Einstein's theory. Einstein explained gravity as a factor in the curvature of space-time. No need to enter a new Higgs field so that to explain the nature of formation mass of elementary particles. To solve the problem of formation of the mass need to be developed the ideas of Einstein's curved space-time. This was done in the theory of Superunification.
I am surprised illogicality of what is happening in the fundamental science. We built the LHC so that to find the Higgs boson which is contrary to the ideas of Einstein's curved space-time. The Higgs field is not the Einstein field. This was proved in the theory of Superunification.
Dear Antonio, you have proved experimentally that the rate of neutrinos can reach the speed of light. In this case the neutrino mass does not increase to infinite value. This is possible only in one case, if the neutrino has no mass. This does not contradict Einstein's theory. You have a fundamental result and the unique positive result which justifies all expenses for the LHC.
You are right.
Kind regards,
Vladimir
“This is a natural part of the canons of scientific process. Science forges ahead in the land of the unknown by taking two steps forward and one step back"
...and the project management takes one step down, "making corrections and learning from its mistakes”