Neutrinos May Not Have Traveled Faster Than Light, CERN Says
A neutrino beam may not have traveled faster than the speed of light as a measurement flaw was identified, undermining an announcement late last year, according to the institute in charge of the research project.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said in September a neutrino beam was measured as traveling faster than the speed of light, appearing to break the limit set by Albert Einstein in 1905. That finding may have been flawed because of a technical malfunction in timing instruments, CERN said today in an e-mailed statement.
“If this is the case, it could have led to an underestimate of the time of flight of the neutrinos,” Geneva- based CERN said. “New measurements with short pulsed beams are scheduled for May.”
Neutrinos, subatomic particles fired from CERN’s Geneva base to a laboratory 730 kilometers (450 miles) away in Gran Sasso, Italy, were clocked at a velocity 20 parts per million above the speed of light, the organization said in September.
“To me as a theoretician, it screams systemic error,” Roberto Trotta, an astrophysicist at Imperial College, London, said at the time.
To contact the reporter on this story: Makiko Kitamura in London at mkitamura1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net
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