23 Sep 2011

Particles found to break speed of light

10:06 am on 23 September 2011

An international team of scientists believes it has recorded neutrino particles travelling faster than the speed of light.

An international team of scientists believes it has recorded neutrino particles travelling faster than the speed of light.

Researchers at the CERN particle physics centre on the Franco-Swiss border say measurements taken over three years showed the neutrinos moving 60 nanoseconds quicker than light over a distance of 730 kilometres.

A spokesperson for the group, Antonio Ereditato, says researchers have confidence in the findings, having checked and rechecked distortions, but he says results need to be confirmed by other scientists.

If confirmed, the discovery could challenge one of the fundamental rules of physics - the part of Einstein's 1905 theory of special relativity which that nothing in the universe can travel faster than light.

That assertion, which has withstood over a century of testing, is one of the key elements of the so-called Standard Model of physics, which attempts to describe the way the universe and everything in it works.

The totally unexpected finding emerged from research by a physicists working on an experiment dubbed OPERA run jointly by the CERN particle research centre near Geneva and the Gran Sasso Laboratory in central Italy.

A total of 15,000 beams of neutrinos - tiny particles that pervade the cosmos - were fired over a period of 3 years from CERN towards Gran Sasso 730km away, where they were picked up by giant detectors.

Light would have covered the distance in around 2.4 thousandths of a second, but the neutrinos took 60 nanoseconds - or 60 billionths of a second - less than light beams would have taken.

"It is a tiny difference," Mr Ereditato said, "but conceptually it is incredibly important. The finding is so startling that, for the moment, everybody should be very prudent."

Other physicists will be officially informed of the discovery at a meeting in CERN on Friday.