2011 OPERA faster-than-light neutrino anomaly

2011 experiment which mistakenly seemed to show faster-than-light travel October 2018 October 2018 thumb|upright=1.5|alt=Fig. 1 Faster than light neutrinos. What OPERA saw. Leftmost is the proton beam from the CERN SPS accelerator. It passes the beam current transformer (BCT), hits the target, creating first, pions and then, somewhere in the decay tunnel, neutrinos. The red lines are the CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (CNGS) beam to the LNGS lab where the OPERA detector is. The proton beam is timed at the BCT. The left waveform is the measured distribution of protons, and the right that of the detected OPERA neutrinos. The shift is the neutrino travel time. Distance traveled is roughly 731 km. At the top are the GPS satellites providing a common clock to both sites, making time comparison possible. Only the PolaRx GPS receiver is above-ground, and fiber cables bring the time underground. |Fig. 1 What OPERA saw. Leftmost is the proton beam from the CERN SPS accelerator. It passes the beam current transformer (BCT), hits the target, creating first, pions and then, somewhere in the decay tunnel, neutrinos. The red lines are the CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (CNGS) beam to the LNGS lab where the OPERA detector is. The proton beam is timed at the BCT. The left waveform is the measured distribution of protons, and the right that of the detected OPERA neutrinos. The shift is the neutrino travel time. Distance traveled is roughly 731 km. At the top are the GPS satellites providing a common clock to both sites, making time comparison possible. Only the PolaRx GPS receiver is above-ground, and fiber cables bring the time underground.Figure1 In 2011, the Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus (OPERA) experiment mistakenly observed neutrinos appearing to travel faster than light. Even before the source of the error was discovered, the result was considered anomalous because speeds higher than that of light in vacuum are generally thought to violate special relativity, a cornerstone of the modern understanding of physics for over a century.Reich 2011b Many sources describe faster-than-light (FTL) as violating special relativity (SR): (Reich 2011c; Cho 2011a; Choi 2011). Other reliable sources disagree, though; for FTL not necessarily violating SR, see "Tachyon" 2011. On June 8, 2012, after further research and analysis, CERN research director Sergio Bertolucci declared that the speed of neutrinos is consistent with that of light. The press release, made from the 25th International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics in Kyoto, states that the original OPERA results were wrong, due to equipment failures. On July 12, 2012, OPERA updated their paper by including the new sources of errors in their calculations. They found agreement of neutrino speed with the speed of light.OPERA 2012 Detection The experiment created a form of neutrinos, muon neutrinos, at CERN's older SPS accelerator, on the Franco–Swiss border, and detected them at the LNGS lab in Gran Sasso, Italy. OPERA researchers used common-view GPS, derived from standard GPS, to measure the times and place coordinates at which the neutrinos were created and detected. As computed, the neutrinos' average time of flight turned out to be less than what light would need to travel the same distance in vacuum. In a two-week span up to November 6, the OPERA team repeated the measurement with a different way of generating neutrinos, which helped measure travel time of each detected neutrino separately. This eliminated some possible errors related to matching detected neutrinos to their creation time.Cartlidge 2011b The OPERA collaboration stated in their initial press release that further scrutiny and independent tests were necessary to definitely confirm or refute the results."OPERA experiment reports anomaly in flight time of neutrinos from CERN to Gran Sasso" 2011 First results In a March 2011 analysis of their data, scientists of the OPERA collaboration reported evidence that neutrinos they produced at CERN in Geneva and recorded at the OPERA detector at Gran Sasso, Italy, had traveled faster than light. The neutrinos were calculated to have arrived approximately 60.7 nanoseconds (60.7 billionths of a second) sooner than light would have if traversing the same distance in vacuum. After six months of cross checking, on September 23, 2011, the researchers announced that neutrinos had been observed traveling at faster-than-light speed.Reich 2011a Similar results were obtained using higher-energy (28 GeV) neutrinos, which were observed to check if neutrinos' velocity depended on their energy. The particles were measured arriving at the detector faster than light by approximately one part per 40,000, with a 0.2-in-a-million chance of the result being a false positive, assuming the error were entirely due to random effects (significance of six sigma). This measure included estimates for both errors in measuring and errors from the statistical procedure used. It was, however, a measure of precision, not accuracy, which could be influenced by elements such as incorrect computations or wrong readouts of instruments.Brunetti 2011OPERA 2011a For particle physics experiments involving collision data, the standard for a discovery announcement is a five-sigma error limit, looser than the observed six-sigma limit.Seife 2000 The preprint of the research stated "[the observed] deviation of the neutrino velocity from c (the speed of light in vacuum) would be a striking result pointing to new physics in the neutrino sector" and referred to the "early arrival time of CNGS muon neutrinos" as an "anomaly".OPERA 2011a 29 OPERA spokesperson Antonio Ereditato explained that the OPERA team had "not found any instrumental effect that could explain the result of the measurement". James Gillies, a spokesperson for CERN, said on September 22 that the scientists were "inviting the broader physics community to look at what they [had] done and really scrutinize it in great detail, and ideally for someone elsewhere in the world to repeat the measurements".Jordans Borenstein 2011a Internal replication thumb|right|alt=Fig. 2 Analysis of the internal replication. Distribution of the early-arrival values for each detected neutrino with bunched-beam rerun. The mean value is indicated by the red line and the blue band.|Fig. 2 Analysis of the internal replication in November. Distribution of the early-arrival values for each detected neutrino with bunched-beam rerun. The mean value is indicated by the red line and the blue band.Figure2 In November, OPERA published refined results where they noted their chances of being wrong as even less, thus tightening their error bounds. Neutrinos arrived approximately 57.8 ns earlier than if they had traveled at light-speed, giving a relative speed difference of approximately one part per 42,000 against that of light. The new significance level became 6.2 sigma.OPERA 2011b The collaboration submitted its results for peer-reviewed publication to the Journal of High Energy Physics.Cartlidge 2011cJha 2011 In the same paper, the OPERA collaboration also published the results of a repeat experiment running from October 21, 2011 to November 7, 2011. They detected twenty neutrinos consistently indicating an early neutrino arrival of approximately 62.1 ns, in agreement with the result of the main analysis. "A new proton spill from CERN to Gran Sasso" 2011; OPERA 2011b Measurement errors In February 2012, the OPERA collaboration announced two possible sources of error that could have significantly influenced the results. A link from a GPS receiver to the OPERA master clock was loose, which increased the delay through the fiber. The glitch's effect was to decrease the reported flight time of the neutrinos by 73 ns, making them seem faster than light.Cartlidge 2012cLindinger Hagner 2012 A clock on an electronic board ticked faster than its expected 10 MHz frequency, lengthening the reported flight-time of neutrinos, thereby somewhat reducing the seeming faster-than-light effect. OPERA stated the component had been operating outside its specifications.scaction "Science in action" 2012 In March 2012 an LNGS seminar was held, confirming the fiber cable was not fully screwed in during data gathering.Embattled neutrino project leaders step down Nature News Eugenie Samuel Reich April 2, 2012 April 2, 2012 10.1038/nature.2012.10371 211730430 http://www.nature.com/news/embattled-neutrino-project-leaders-step-down-1.10371 subscription LVD researchers compared the timing data for cosmic high-energy muons hitting both the OPERA and the nearby LVD detector between 2007 and 2008, 2008–2011, and 2011–2012. The shift obtained for the 2008–2011 period agreed with the OPERA anomaly.LVD and OPERA 2012 The researchers also found photographs showing the cable had been loose by October 13, 2011.Sirri Gabriele 2012-03-28 Measurements and cross checks on OPERA timing equipments https://agenda.infn.it/event/4896/attachments/39806/46942/G._Sirri.pptx live https://web.archive.org/web/20220210015401/https://agenda.infn.it/event/4896/attachments/39806/46942/G._Sirri.pptx 2022-02-10 2022-02-10 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare 8 Powerpoint presentation Correcting for the two newly found sources of error, results for neutrino speed appear to be consistent with the speed of light. End results On July 12, 2012, the OPERA collaboration published the end results of their measurements between 2009 and 2011. The difference between the measured and expected arrival time of neutrinos (compared to the speed of light) was approximately 6.5 ± 15 ns. This is consistent with no difference at all, thus the speed of neutrinos is consistent with the speed of light within the margin of error. Also, the re-analysis of the 2011 bunched beam rerun gave a similar result.OPERA 2012 Independent replication Measurements of neutrino speed In March 2012, the co-located ICARUS experiment refuted the OPERA results by measuring neutrino velocity to be that of light.ICARUS 2012b ICARUS measured speed for seven neutrinos in the same short-pulse beam OPERA had checked in November 2011, and found them, on average, traveling at the speed of light. The results were from a trial run of neutrino-velocity measurements slated for May.Jordans 2012 In May 2012, a new bunched beam rerun was initiated by CERN. Then in June 2012, it was announced by CERN that the four Gran Sasso experiments OPERA, ICARUS, LVD, and BOREXINO measured neutrino speeds consistent with the speed of light, indicating that the initial OPERA result was due to equipment errors. In addition, Fermilab stated that the detectors for the MINOS project were being upgraded.Hooker 2011 Fermilab scientists closely analyzed and placed bounds on the errors in their timing system.Pease 2011 On June 8, 2012, MINOS announced that according to preliminary results, the neutrino speed is consistent with the speed of light.MINOS reports new measurement of neutrino velocity Fermilab Today http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive_2012/today12-06-08.html June 8, 2012 June 8, 2012 The measurement The OPERA experiment was designed to capture how neutrinos switch between different identities, but Autiero realized the equipment could be used to precisely measure neutrino speed too.nosengo Nosengo 2011 An earlier result from the MINOS experiment at Fermilab demonstrated that the measurement was technically feasible.Cartlidge 2011a The principle of the OPERA neutrino velocity experiment was to compare travel time of neutrinos against travel time of light. The neutrinos in the experiment emerged at CERN and flew to the OPERA detector. The researchers divided this distance by the speed of light in vacuum to predict what the neutrino travel time should be. They compared this expected value to the measured travel time.Cho 2011b Overview The OPERA team used an already existing beam of neutrinos traveling continuously from CERN to LNGS, the CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso beam, for the measurement. Measuring speed meant measuring the distance traveled by the neutrinos from their source to where they were detected, and the time taken by them to travel this length. The source at CERN was more than 730 km away from the detector at LNGS (Gran Sasso). The experiment was tricky because there was no way to time an individual neutrino, necessitating more complex steps. As shown in Fig. 1, CERN generates neutrinos by slamming protons, in pulses of length 10.5 microseconds (10.5 millionths of a second), into a graphite target to produce intermediate particles, which decay into neutrinos. OPERA researchers measured the protons as they passed a section called the beam current transducer (BCT) and took the transducer's position as the neutrinos' starting point. The protons did not actually create neutrinos for another kilometer, but because both protons and the intermediate particles moved almost at light speed, the error from the assumption was acceptably low. The clocks at CERN and LNGS had to be in sync, and for this the researchers used high-quality GPS receivers, backed up with atomic clocks, at both places. This system timestamped both the proton pulse and the detected neutrinos to a claimed accuracy of 2.3 nanoseconds. But the timestamp could not be read like a clock. At CERN, the GPS signal came only to a receiver at a central control room, and had to be routed with cables and electronics to the computer in the neutrino-beam control room which recorded the proton pulse measurement (Fig. 3). The delay of this equipment was 10,085 nanoseconds and this value had to be added to the time stamp. The data from the transducer arrived at the computer with a 580 nanoseconds delay, and this value had to be subtracted from the time stamp. To get all the corrections right, physicists had to measure exact lengths of the cables and the latencies of the electronic devices. On the detector side, neutrinos were detected by the charge they induced, not by the light they generated, and this involved cables and electronics as part of the timing chain. Fig. 4 shows the corrections applied on the OPERA detector side. Since neutrinos could not be accurately tracked to the specific protons producing them, an averaging method had to be used. The researchers added up the measured proton pulses to get an average distribution in time of the individual protons in a pulse. The time at which neutrinos were detected at Gran Sasso was plotted to produce another distribution. The two distributions were expected to have similar shapes, but be separated by 2.4 milliseconds, the time it takes to travel the distance at light speed. The experimenters used an algorithm, maximum likelihood, to search for the time shift that best made the two distributions to coincide. The shift so calculated, the statistically measured neutrino arrival time, was approximately 60 nanoseconds shorter than the 2.4 milliseconds neutrinos would have taken if they traveled just at light speed. In a later experiment, the proton pulse width was shortened to 3 nanoseconds, and this helped the scientists to narrow the generation time of each detected neutrino to that range. The CERN-neutrino-to-Gran-Sasso beam citation is from "Upstream from OPERA: extreme attention to detail" 2011; the rest of the description draws heavily on the article by Cho 2011b, and, to some extent, by Cartlidge 2011b. Measuring distance Distance was measured by accurately fixing the source and detector points on a global coordinate system (ETRF2000). CERN surveyors used GPS to measure the source location. On the detector side, the OPERA team worked with a geodesy group from the Sapienza University of Rome to locate the detector's center with GPS and standard map-making techniques. To link the surface GPS location to the coordinates of the underground detector, traffic had to be partially stopped on the access road to the lab. Combining the two location measurements, the researchers calculated the distance,upstream "Upstream from OPERA: extreme attention to detail" 2011 to an accuracy of 20 cm within the 730 km path.Colosimo Crespi Mazzoni Riguzzi 2011 Measuring trip time 330 center Timing systems at the two ends of the OPERA experiment CNGStiming.png Fig. 3 CERN SPS/CNGS time measuring system. Protons circulate in the SPS till kicked by a signal to the beam current transformer (BCT) and on to the target. The BCT is the origin for the measurement. Both the kicker signal and the proton flux in the BCT get to the waveform digitizer (WFD), the first through the Control Timing Receiver (CTRI). The WFD records the proton distribution. The common CNGS/LNGS clock comes from GPS via the PolaRx receiver and the central CTRI, where the CERN UTC and General Machine Timing (GMT) also arrive. The difference between the two references is recorded. The marker x ± y indicates an x nanosecond delay with a y ns error bound. Fig. 3 CERN SPS/CNGS time measuring system. Protons circulate in the SPS till kicked by a signal to the beam current transformer (BCT) and on to the target. The BCT is the origin for the measurement. Both the kicker signal and the proton flux in the BCT get to the waveform digitizer (WFD), the first through the Control Timing Receiver (CTRI). The WFD records the proton distribution. The common CNGS/LNGS clock comes from GPS via the PolaRx receiver and the central CTRI, where the CERN UTC and General Machine Timing (GMT) also arrive. The difference between the two references is recorded. The marker x ± y indicates an x nanosecond delay with a y ns error bound. Figure3 LNGStiming.png Fig. 4 OPERA time measuring system at LNGS: various delays of the timing chain, and the standard deviations of the error. The top half of the picture is the common GPS clock system (PolaRx2e is the GPS receiver), and the bottom half is the underground detector. Fiber cables bring the GPS clock underneath. The underground detector consists of the blocks from the tt-strip to the FPGA. Errors for each component are shown as x ± y, where x is the delay caused by the component in transmitting time information, and y is the expected bound on that delay. Fig. 4 OPERA time measuring system at LNGS: various delays of the timing chain, and the standard deviations of the error. The top half of the picture is the common GPS clock system (PolaRx2e is the GPS receiver), and the bottom half is the underground detector. Fiber cables bring the GPS clock underneath. The underground detector consists of the blocks from the tt-strip to the FPGA. Errors for each component are shown as x ± y, where x is the delay caused by the component in transmitting time information, and y is the expected bound on that delay. Figure4 The travel time of the neutrinos had to be measured by tracking the time they were created, and the time they were detected, and using a common clock to ensure the times were in sync. As Fig. 1 shows, the time measuring system included the neutrino source at CERN, the detector at LNGS (Gran Sasso), and a satellite element common to both. The common clock was the time signal from multiple GPS satellites visible from both CERN and LNGS. CERN's beams-department engineers worked with the OPERA team to provide a travel time measurement between the source at CERN and a point just before the OPERA detector's electronics, using accurate GPS receivers. This included timing the proton beams' interactions at CERN, and timing the creation of intermediate particles eventually decaying into neutrinos (see Fig. 3). Researchers from OPERA measured the remaining delays and calibrations not included in the CERN calculation: those shown in Fig. 4. The neutrinos were detected in an underground lab, but the common clock from the GPS satellites was visible only above ground level. The clock value noted above-ground had to be transmitted to the underground detector with an 8 km fiber cable. The delays associated with this transfer of time had to be accounted for in the calculation. How much the error could vary (the standard deviation of the errors) mattered to the analysis, and had to be calculated for each part of the timing chain separately. Special techniques were used to measure the length of the fiber and its consequent delay, required as part of the overall calculation. In addition, to sharpen resolution from the standard GPS 100 nanoseconds to the 1 nanosecond range metrology labs achieve, OPERA researchers used Septentrio's precise PolaRx2eTR GPS timing receiver,"Knocking Einstein: Septentrio in CERN experiment" 2011 along with consistency checks across clocks (time calibration procedures) which allowed for common-view time transfer. The PolaRx2eTR allowed measurement of the time offset between an atomic clock and each of the Global Navigation Satellite System satellite clocks. For calibration, the equipment was taken to the Swiss Metrology Institute (METAS). In addition, highly stable cesium clocks were installed both at LNGS and CERN to cross-check GPS timing and to increase its precision. After OPERA found the superluminal result, the time calibration was rechecked both by a CERN engineer and the German Institute of Metrology (PTB). Time-of-flight was eventually measured to an accuracy of 10 nanoseconds.Feldmann 2011; Komatsu 2011 The final error bound was derived by combining the variance of the error for the individual parts. The analysis The OPERA team analyzed the results in different ways and using different experimental methods. Following the initial main analysis released in September, three further analyses were made public in November. In the main November analysis, all the existing data were reanalyzed to allow adjustments for other factors, such as the Sagnac effect in which the Earth's rotation affects the distance traveled by the neutrinos. Then an alternative analysis adopted a different model for the matching of the neutrinos to their creation time. The third analysis of November focused on a different experimental setup ('the rerun') which changed the way the neutrinos were created. In the initial setup, every detected neutrino would have been produced sometime in a 10,500 nanoseconds (10.5 microseconds) range, since this was the duration of the proton beam spill generating the neutrinos. It was not possible to isolate neutrino production time further within the spill. Therefore, in their main statistical analyses, the OPERA group generated a model of the proton waveforms at CERN, took the various waveforms together, and plotted the chance of neutrinos being emitted at various times (the global probability density function of the neutrino emission times). They then compared this plot against a plot of the arrival times of the 15,223 detected neutrinos. This comparison indicated neutrinos had arrived at the detector 57.8 nanoseconds faster than if they had been traveling at the speed of light in vacuum. An alternative analysis in which each detected neutrino was checked against the waveform of its associated proton spill (instead of against the global probability density function) led to a compatible result of approximately 54.5 nanoseconds.OPERA 2011b 14, 16–21 The November main analysis, which showed an early arrival time of 57.8 nanoseconds, was conducted blind to avoid observer bias, whereby those running the analysis might inadvertently fine-tune the result toward expected values. To this end, old and incomplete values for distances and delays from the year 2006 were initially adopted. With the final correction needed not yet known, the intermediate expected result was also an unknown. Analysis of the measurement data under those 'blind' conditions gave an early neutrino arrival of 1043.4 nanoseconds. Afterward, the data were analyzed again taking into consideration the complete and actual sources of errors. If neutrino and light speed were the same, a subtraction value of 1043.4 nanoseconds should have been obtained for the correction. However, the actual subtraction value amounted to only 985.6 nanoseconds, corresponding to an arrival time 57.8 nanoseconds earlier than expected.OPERA 2011b Two facets of the result came under particular scrutiny within the neutrino community: the GPS synchronization system, and the profile of the proton beam spill that generated neutrinos.Reich 2011a The second concern was addressed in the November rerun: for this analysis, OPERA scientists repeated the measurement over the same baseline using a new CERN proton beam which circumvented the need to make any assumptions about the details of neutrino production during the beam activation, such as energy distribution or production rate. This beam provided proton pulses of 3 nanoseconds each with up to 524 nanosecond gaps. This meant a detected neutrino could be tracked uniquely to its generating 3 nanoseconds pulse, and hence its start and end travel times could be directly noted. Thus, the neutrino's speed could now be calculated without having to resort to statistical inference. In addition to the four analyses mentioned earlier—September main analysis, November main analysis, alternative analysis, and the rerun analysis—the OPERA team also split the data by neutrino energy and reported the results for each set of the September and November main analyses. The rerun analysis had too few neutrinos to consider splitting the set further. Reception by the physics community After the initial report of apparent superluminal velocities of neutrinos, most physicists in the field were quietly skeptical of the results, but prepared to adopt a wait-and-see approach. Experimental experts were aware of the complexity and difficulty of the measurement, so an extra unrecognized measurement error was still a real possibility, despite the care taken by the OPERA team.August 2013 However, because of the widespread interest, several well-known experts did make public comments. Nobel laureates Steven Weinberg,Matson 2011 George Smoot III, and Carlo Rubbia,Padala 2011 and other physicists not affiliated with the experiment, including Michio Kaku,Jordans Borenstein 2011b expressed skepticism about the accuracy of the experiment on the basis that the results challenged a long-held theory consistent with the results of many other tests of special relativity. Reich 2011c; Cho 2011b; Overbye 2011; Gary 2011 Nevertheless, Ereditato, the OPERA spokesperson, stated that no one had an explanation that invalidated the experiment's results.Palmer 2011 Previous experiments of neutrino speed played a role in the reception of the OPERA result by the physics community. Those experiments did not detect statistically significant deviations of neutrino speeds from the speed of light. For instance, Astronomer Royal Martin Rees and theoretical physicists Lawrence KraussMatson 2011 and Stephen Hawking"Hawking on the future of mankind" 2012 stated neutrinos from the SN 1987A supernova explosion arrived almost at the same time as light, indicating no faster-than-light neutrino speed. John Ellis, theoretical physicist at CERN, believed it difficult to reconcile the OPERA results with the SN 1987A observations.Brumfiel 2011 Observations of this supernova restricted 10 MeV anti-neutrino speed to less than 20 parts per billion (ppb) over lightspeed. This was one of the reasons most physicists suspected the OPERA team had made an error.Cho 2011b Physicists affiliated with the experiment had refrained from interpreting the result, stating in their paper: Despite the large significance of the measurement reported here and the stability of the analysis, the potentially great impact of the result motivates the continuation of our studies in order to investigate possible still unknown systematic effects that could explain the observed anomaly. We deliberately do not attempt any theoretical or phenomenological interpretation of the results.OPERA 2011a 29 Theoretical physicists Gian Giudice, Sergey Sibiryakov, and Alessandro Strumia showed that superluminal neutrinos would imply some anomalies in the velocities of electrons and muons, as a result of quantum-mechanical effects.giudice Giudice Sibiryakov Strumia 2011 Such anomalies could be already ruled out from existing data on cosmic rays, thus contradicting the OPERA results. Andrew Cohen and Sheldon Glashow predicted that superluminal neutrinos would radiate electrons and positrons and lose energy through vacuum Cherenkov effects, where a particle traveling faster than light decays continuously into other slower particles.cohen Cohen Glashow 2011 However, this energy attrition was absent both in the OPERA experiment and in the co-located ICARUS experiment, which uses the same CNGS beam as OPERA.Reich 2011bICARUS 2012a This discrepancy was seen by Cohen and Glashow to present "a significant challenge to the superluminal interpretation of the OPERA data".cohen Cohen Glashow 2011 Many other scientific papers on the anomaly were published as arXiv preprints or in peer reviewed journals. Some of them criticized the result, while others tried to find theoretical explanations, replacing or extending special relativity and the Standard Model.Resource list at INFN SuperLuminal Neutrino, archived from the original on September 2, 2012 Discussions within the OPERA collaboration In the months after the initial announcement, tensions emerged in the OPERA collaboration.Grossman 2011aGrossman 2011bCartlidge 2011cCartlidge 2012c A vote of no confidence among the more than thirty group team leaders failed, but spokesperson Ereditato and physics coordinator Autiero resigned their leadership positions anyway on March 30, 2012.Cartlidge 2012dGrossman 2012b In a resignation letter, Ereditato claimed that their results were "excessively sensationalized and portrayed with not always justified simplification" and defended the collaboration, stating, "The OPERA Collaboration has always acted in full compliance with scientific rigor: both when it announced the results and when it provided an explanation for them."Antonio Ereditato OPERA: Ereditato's Point of View Le Scienze March 30, 2012 http://www.lescienze.it/news/2012/03/30/news/opera_ereditatos_point_of_view-938232/ Political controversy In the wake of the discovery, the Italian minister of education Mariastella Gelmini issued a press release praising the experiment and her government for financing the construction of a tunnel between the two laboratories.Dichiarazione del ministro Mariastella Gelmini Mariastella Gelmini http://www.istruzione.it/web/ministero/cs230911 https://web.archive.org/web/20110925072504/http://www.istruzione.it/web/ministero/cs230911 2011-09-25 Useless to the experiment, a literal tunnel never existed, and the press release became a source of jokes in Italy for months. See also Measurements of neutrino speed GSI anomaly Notes 20em References 20em Boyle A. February 18, 2012 Answers ahead for physics' puzzles http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/17/10436808-answers-ahead-for-physics-puzzles https://web.archive.org/web/20120218211700/http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/17/10436808-answers-ahead-for-physics-puzzles February 18, 2012 MSNBC February 18, 2012 Brown E. Khan A. September 23, 2011 Faster than light? CERN findings bewilder scientists http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-0923-speed-of-light-20110923,0,497738.story Los Angeles Times September 24, 2011 MINOS scientists may perform experiments of their own in as soon as six months, said particle physicist and MINOS co-spokesperson Jenny Thomas. Plans to test the CERN results in Japan's multinational T2K (Tokai-to-Kamioka) experiment are in the works, said neutrino physicist and T2K spokesman Chang Kee Jung Brumfiel G. 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October 21, 2011b https://web.archive.org/web/20111025160931/http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/10/faster-than-light-result-to-be.html?ref=hp 2011-10-25 Faster-than-light result to be scrutinized http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/10/faster-than-light-result-to-be.html?ref=hp Science Insider October 21, 2011 Cartlidge E. November 17, 2011c Faster-Than-Light neutrinos: OPERA confirms and submits results, but unease remains http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/faster-than-light-neutrinos-opera.html?ref=hp Science Insider November 17, 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20111121131736/http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/faster-than-light-neutrinos-opera.html?ref=hp November 21, 2011 Cartlidge E. February 22, 2012a https://web.archive.org/web/20120223005537/http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/02/breaking-news-error-undoes-faster.html?ref=hp 2012-02-23 Breaking news: Error undoes faster-than-light neutrino results http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/02/breaking-news-error-undoes-faster.html?ref=hp Science Insider February 22, 2012 Cartlidge E. February 24, 2012b https://web.archive.org/web/20120226003613/http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/02/official-word-on-superluminal-ne.html?ref=hp 2012-02-26 Official Word on Superluminal Neutrinos Leaves Warp-Drive Fans a Shred of Hope—Barely http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/02/official-word-on-superluminal-ne.html?ref=hp Science Insider February 24, 2012 Cartlidge E. March 1, 2012c Loose cable may unravel faster-than-light result Science 335 6072 1027 10.1126/science.335.6072.1027 22383815 2012Sci...335.1027C Cartlidge E. 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September 29, 2011 Pair Creation Constrains Superluminal Neutrino Propagation Physical Review Letters 107 18 181803 1109.6562 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.181803 2011PhRvL.107r1803C 22107624 56198539 Colosimo G. Crespi M. Mazzoni A. Riguzzi F. Jones M. Missiaen D. October 10, 2011 Determination of the CNGS global geodesy http://operaweb.lngs.infn.it/Opera/publicnotes/note132.pdf OPERA November 20, 2011 October 5, 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20111005154218/http://operaweb.lngs.infn.it/Opera/publicnotes/note132.pdf dead Feldmann T. September 2011 Relative calibration of the GPS time link between CERN and LNGS http://operaweb.lngs.infn.it/Opera/publicnotes/note134.pdf Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt November 20, 2011 January 19, 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120119074556/http://operaweb.lngs.infn.it/Opera/publicnotes/note134.pdf dead Gary S. November 25, 2011 Neutrinos win but Einstein hasn't lost yet http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/11/25/3376138.htm?site=science/newsanalysis ABC Science December 3, 2011 Giudice G. F. Sibiryakov S. Strumia A. September 26, 2011 Interpreting OPERA Results on Superluminal Neutrino Nuclear Physics B 861 1 1–16 1109.5682 10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2012.03.008 2012NuPhB.861....1G 119108764 Grossman L. October 25, 2011a Faster-than-light neutrino result to get extra checks https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21093-fasterthanlight-neutrino-result-to-get-extra-checks.html New Scientist October 25, 2011 Grossman L. November 18, 2011b New results show neutrinos still faster than light https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21188-more-data-shows-neutrinos-still-faster-than-light.html New Scientist November 18, 2011 Grossman L. November 26, 2011c More data shows neutrinos still faster than light New Scientist 212 2840 17 10.1016/S0262-4079(11)62883-2 Grossman L. January 4, 2012 Faster-than-light neutrinos dealt another blow https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21328-fasterthanlight-neutrinos-dealt-another-blow.html New Scientist January 4, 2012 Grossman L. March 31, 2012b Leaders of controversial neutrino experiment step down https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21656-leaders-of-controversial-neutrino-experiment-step-down.html New Scientist January 6, 2012 Hawking on the future of mankind https://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9672000/9672233.stm BBC News January 6, 2012 "Hawking on the future of mankind" 2012 Hooker B. September 23, 2011 OPERA experiment reports anomaly in flight time of neutrinos Fermilab Today http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive_2011/today11-09-23.html September 24, 2011 ICARUS Collaboration May 15, 2012a A search for the analogue to Cherenkov radiation by high energy neutrinos at superluminal speeds in ICARUS Physics Letters B 711 3–4 270–275 1110.3763 2012PhLB..711..270I 10.1016/j.physletb.2012.04.014 118357662 ICARUS 2012a ICARUS Collaboration June 18, 2012 Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the ICARUS detector at the CNGS beam Physics Letters B 713 1 17–22 1203.3433 2012PhLB..713...17A 10.1016/j.physletb.2012.05.033 55397067 ICARUS 2012b Jha A. November 17, 2011 Neutrinos still faster than light in latest version of experiment The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/nov/18/neutrinos-still-faster-than-light?newsfeed=true November 17, 2011 Jordans F. March 16, 2012 New test nixes findings about faster-than-light neutrinos Associated Press http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46760561 NBC News March 16, 2012 August 2024 medicmedic Jordans F. Borenstein S. September 22, 2011a Roll over Einstein: Law of physics challenged (update 3) Associated Press http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-cern-faster-than-light-particle.html PhysOrg September 24, 2011 Jordans F. Borenstein S. 24 September 2011b Challenging Einstein is usually a losing venture https://news.yahoo.com/challenging-einstein-usually-losing-venture-214054440.html AP/Yahoo News September 26, 2011 September 28, 2011 Knocking Einstein: Septentrio in CERN experiment on faster-than-Light neutrinos GPS World http://editiondigital.net/print.php?pages=17&issue_id=124737&ref=1 November 20, 2011 "Knocking Einstein: Septentrio in CERN experiment" 2011 December 2019 InternetArchiveBot yes Komatsu M. October 4, 2011 Seminar: Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam IPNS/KEK http://seminar.kek.jp/physics/files2011/20111004_komatsu.pdf November 20, 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20120425233618/http://seminar.kek.jp/physics/files2011/20111004_komatsu.pdf April 25, 2012 Lindinger M. Hagner C. February 24, 2012 Interview über die möglichen Fehlerquellen: Messfehler könnten Überlichtgeschwindigkeit erklären https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wissen/physik-chemie/interview-ueber-die-moeglichen-fehlerquellen-messfehler-koennten-ueberlichtgeschwindigkeit-erklaeren-11660876.html Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung February 24, 2012 . See also this translation into English (see first comment): Measurement errors could explain FTL. LVD and OPERA collaboration Determination of a time-shift in the OPERA set-up using high energy horizontal muons in the LVD and OPERA detectors The European Physical Journal Plus 127 6 2012 71 10.1140/epjp/i2012-12071-5 1206.2488 2012EPJP..127...71A 118387598 LVD and OPERA 2012 Matson J. September 26, 2011 Faster-than-light neutrinos? Physics luminaries voice doubts http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ftl-neutrinos Scientific American October 9, 2011 November 7, 2011 A new proton spill from CERN to Gran Sasso CERN Bulletin http://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2011/45/News%20Articles/1394597?ln=en November 12, 2011 "A new proton spill from CERN to Gran Sasso" 2011 Noorden R. V. 365 days: 2011 in review Nature News 480 7378 426–429 2011Natur.480..426V 10.1038/480426a 22193080 December 21, 2011 free Nosengo N. December 21, 2011 Dario Autiero: Relativity challenger Nature News 480 7378 437–445 2011Natur.480..437B 22193082 10.1038/480437a free OPERA Collaboration OPERA 2011a September 22, 2011 Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam hep-ex 1109.4897v1 OPERA Collaboration OPERA 2011b November 17, 2011 Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam hep-ex 1109.4897v2 OPERA Collaboration Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam July 12, 2012 1109.4897 10.1007/JHEP10(2012)093 2012 10 93 Journal of High Energy Physics 2012JHEP...10..093A 17652398 OPERA 2012 September 23, 2011 OPERA experiment reports anomaly in flight time of neutrinos from CERN to Gran Sasso CERN http://press.cern/press-releases/2011/09/opera-experiment-reports-anomaly-flight-time-neutrinos-cern-gran-sasso November 22, 2016 "OPERA experiment reports anomaly in flight time of neutrinos from CERN to Gran Sasso" 2011 November 22, 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20171122021656/https://press.cern/press-releases/2011/09/opera-experiment-reports-anomaly-flight-time-neutrinos-cern-gran-sasso dead . Also includes press releases from November 18, 2011, February 23, 2012, March 16, 2012, and June 8, 2012. October 24, 2011 OPERA's measurement: theory's speaking time http://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2011/43/News%20Articles/1392338?ln=pl CERN Bulletin October 28, 2011 "OPERA's measurement: theory's speaking time" 2011 Overbye D. November 18, 2011 Scientists report second sighting of faster-than-light neutrinos https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/science/space/neutrino-finding-is-confirmed-in-second-experiment-opera-scientists-say.html?partner=rss&emc=rss The New York Times November 18, 2011 Padala S. N. September 28, 2011 U.S. scientists to test findings that neutrinos defied physics' basic tenet http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/221170/20110928/neutrinos-fermilab-opera-e-mc2-einstein-s-theory-of-special-relativity-minos-cern.htm International Business Times October 9, 2011 Palladino V. Migliozzi P. Kahle K. October–December 2011 A word about faster-than-light neutrinos http://eucard.web.cern.ch/EuCARD/news/newsletters/issue11/article1.html EuCARD Newsletter 11 1 December 19, 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20120213155905/http://eucard.web.cern.ch/EuCARD/news/newsletters/issue11/article1.html February 13, 2012 Palmer J. November 18, 2011 Neutrino experiment repeat at CERN finds same result BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15791236 November 20, 2011 Pease R. November 21, 2011 Discovery: Neutrinos BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ljjr2 November 21, 2011 Ramachandran R. March 10, 2012 Faster than light? http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20120323290510800.htm Frontline 29 5 https://web.archive.org/web/20120312064416/http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20120323290510800.htm 2012-03-12 March 11, 2012 Reich E. S. September 27, 2011a Speedy neutrinos challenge physicists Nature News 477 7366 520 2011Natur.477..520R 21956307 10.1038/477520a free Reich E. S. October 20, 2011b Finding puts brakes on faster-than-light neutrinos Nature News 10.1038/news.2011.605 Reich E. S. November 18, 2011c Neutrino experiment replicates faster-than-light finding Nature News 10.1038/nature.2011.9393 211730296 Reich E. S. February 22, 2012 Flaws found in faster-than-light neutrino measurement Nature News 10.1038/nature.2012.10099 211730538 Reich E. S. February 27, 2012b Timing glitches dog neutrino claim Nature News 483 7387 17 2012Natur.483...17S 22382956 10.1038/483017a free Reich E. S. April 2, 2012c Embattled neutrino project leaders step down Nature News 10.1038/nature.2012.10371 211730430 Rincon P. October 28, 2011 Faster-than-light neutrino experiment to be run again BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15471118 October 28, 2011 February 23, 2012 Science in action BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ntwb8 February 23, 2012 "Science in action" 2012 Seife C. September 29, 2000 CERN's gamble shows perils, rewards of playing the odds Science 289 5488 2260 10.1126/science.289.5488.2260 118266382 Shiga D. December 8, 2011 Neutrinos give US best shot at post-Tevatron glory https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228423.400-neutrinos-give-us-best-shot-at-glory-posttevatron.html New Scientist December 8, 2011 T2K Collaboration October 20, 2011 T2K statement on the OPERA anomaly (neutrinos travel faster than light) http://t2k-experiment.org/2011/10/1347/ December 4, 2011 "T2K statement on the OPERA anomaly" 2011 November 21, 2011 Tachyon http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/579987/tachyon Encyclopædia Britannica The existence of the tachyon, though not experimentally established, appears consistent with the theory of relativity, which was originally thought to apply only to particles traveling at or less than the speed of light "Tachyon" 2011 October 10, 2011 Upstream from OPERA: extreme attention to detail http://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2011/41/News%20Articles/1387560?ln=en CERN Bulletin November 20, 2011 "Upstream from OPERA: extreme attention to detail" 2011 Wright A. November 2, 2011 It's a mystery Nature Physics 7 11 833 2011NatPh...7R.833W 10.1038/nphys2143 free As the particle physics community struggles to understand the OPERA experiment's seeming detection of superluminal neutrinos, anomalous results from other neutrino experiments are also under scrutiny. The LSND experiment, which ran at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1990s, found evidence of neutrino oscillations that didn't tally with the standard model of three neutrino species, or with other experimental data. And MiniBooNE, at Fermilab, has seen excess events that could support a particular explanation of the LSND anomaly [...sterile neutrino] External links OPERA: What Went Wrong BBC documentary on the OPERA result OPERA Main Page https://archive.today/20120713232158/http://operaweb.lngs.infn.it/ July 13, 2012 CNGS Neutrino beam at CERN OPERA publications Webcast of OPERA neutrino anomaly presentation by Dario Autiero Works which cite the OPERA result Resource list of The Net Advance of Physics Another summary of OPERA-related arXiv papers CERN OPERA neutrinos travel faster than light, September 22, 2011, YouTube The Neutrinos CERN interview.faster than light Einstein might have been wrong?! HD, YouTube, September 23, 2011 CERN/LNGS researchers' discussion of how to check the time transfer https://web.archive.org/web/20120426001636/http://lists.ohwr.org/sympa/info/cngs-time-transfer April 26, 2012 Category:Experimental particle physics Category:Neutrino experiments Category:2011 in science Category:Faster-than-light travel Category:Physics beyond the Standard Model Category:CERN Category:Obsolete theories in physics