In 1905, Albert Einstein declared speeds greater than light to be impossible. This book describes the author’s decades-long search for the hypothetical subatomic particles known as tachyons that violate this principle.
This book is a scientific detective story. The crime is speeding―that is, the possible breaking of the cosmic speed limit, namely the speed of light, as stipulated by Einstein. This detective story is also a memoir written by a member of a band of "tachyon hunters." The author’s pursuit of tachyons has been met with skepticism from most physicists, who note correctly that no such superluminal particles have ever been surely observed and that there have been many false sightings. Nevertheless, considerable circumstantial evidence for tachyons has already been published and an ongoing experiment could decide the issue in the next few years.
This book is written for the general reader, containing humor and eliminating jargon whenever possible, and will also be of interest to scientists. The hunt for the tachyon will fascinate all readers who approach the study of physics with curious and open minds.
Author(s): Robert Ehrlich
Publisher: CRC Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 211
City: Boca Raton
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
4. Theories of Everything and Anything
Tachyons? “Sure, Why Not”
The Standard Model of Particle Physics
A Zoo of Hypothetical Particles and the Uniqueness of Tachyons
Beyond the Standard Model
What Monsters Might Be Lurking There?
Replacing Particles by Vibrating Strings and Membranes
Loop Quantum Gravity
Gerald Feinberg: An Accidental Futurist
Oliver Heaviside: An Accidental Time Traveler
Pavel Cherenkov: An Accidental Nobel Laureate
FTL Observers and Warp-Drive Spaceships
Cosmic Inflation
Dark Energy, Antigravity, and Tachyons
The Evidence for Dark Energy and an Accelerated Expansion
Mirror Universes
Other Alternatives to the Standard Cosmology
Entanglement: The Effect Einstein Found Spooky
Superdeterminism and Bell’s Theorem
The Most Famous Failed Experiment in History
Einstein’s Ether
Making Tachyonic Neutrinos Less Obnoxious
Logical Inconsistency of Experimental Results
Summary
References
Preface and Acknowledgements
About the Author
1. Three Weird Entities: Tachyons, Neutrinos, and Me
Hidden Unicorns
How not to Reach FTL Speed
E = mc2: The Most Famous Equation in the World
“Meta” Relativity
You are Now Traveling at the Speed of Light
Phantom of the OPERA
My Journey through Time
Finding My Passion
Maverick Jack Steinberger
The Two-Neutrino Experiment
Good and Evil Tachyons
Seeing Things
Black Swans
The Neutrino as a Unicorn
Models of the Three Neutrino Masses
Other Tachyon Possibilities
Using Ockham’s Razor Can Be Dangerous
Sending Messages Back in Time
My Message from the Future
Summary
References
2. Faster than Light and Backwards in Time
Tachyons in Fact and Fiction
A Lazy Dog That Could Not Find an Academic Job
The Block Universe and Its Worldlines
Challenges to the Block Universe Concept
Worldlines and the Light Cone
The Lorentz Transformation
Backward Time-Traveling Tachyons
Chasing a Tachyon
Searching for Tachyons
Messengers from Space
Locating the Sources of the Cosmic Rays
The Mysterious Cygnus X-3
The Proton–Neutron Decay Chain
An Unsettled Mystery
A Failed Collaboration: Glupyy Amerikanets!!
The Field of Cosmic Ray Physics: A Work in Progress
Contacting Your Earlier Self
A “More Feasible” Way to Contact the Past
Fictional Examples
Wormhole Time Machines
Where Are the Time Travelers?
Searching for Wormholes
A Wormhole in the Solar System?
Parallels between Wormholes and Tachyons
Summary
References
3. Supernova SN 1987A and Its Three Unicorns
Supernovae
The Threat from Exploding Stars
The Birth, Life, and Death of Stars
How to Detect Neutrinos
The SN 1987A Neutrino Burst
SN 1987A and the 3 + 3 Model of Neutrino Masses
The Tachyonic Third Mass in the Model
Balancing a Seesaw with Nothing on One Side
Seeking Validation for the 3 + 3 Model
Dark Matter Holds Galaxies Together
First Confirmation of the 3 + 3 Model Masses
Revisiting the Mont Blanc Neutrino Burst
The Neutrino Detector That Failed to “Bark”
Dark Matter in the Stellar Core and 8 MeV Neutrinos
Support for the Z’-Mediated Reaction
Challenges to the Z’-Mediated Reaction Model.
Finding the Unicorn Hidden in the Background
Reliability of the Background
The 8 MeV Line Revealed
Physics and the Nature of God
Summary
The Three Unicorns
References
5. Weighing the Gravitophobic Neutrinos
Introduction
Weighing the Muon Neutrino
A Scale for Measuring Imaginary Mass
The Beta Decay Spectrum and the Electron Neutrino Mass
How to Get a “Kinky” Spectrum
The Beta Spectrum Shape for a Tachyon
Neutrino Mass Experiments
An Embarrassing Episode
The KATRIN Experiment
Measuring the Electron Energy in the Spectrometer
Taking Data with Your Eyes Closed
Dealing with Controversial Results
My Overactive Imagination
A Big Letdown
Consistency of KATRIN Initial Data with 3 + 3 Model
A Stay of Execution
Hearing the Grim Reaper’s Footsteps
KATRIN and Tachyons – Six Possibilities
Fitting an Elephant or a Whole Herd
Hiding Elephants
Summary
References
6. Lessons Learned
A Bright Spot in the Darkness
A Third Approach to Physics Research
Pros and Cons of Data Prospecting
Negative Evidence and Reviews
Fake or Predatory Journals
Making as Many Mistakes as You Can
Spotting Promising Anomalies
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)
Dyson Spheres
Are We Alone?.
Our Chances of Making It to a “Post-Human” Era
Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?
Guessing the Odds
How Could We Tell?.
My Belief That I Am Living in a Simulation
Some Concluding Thoughts
Summary
References
Index
