Apparent Lorentz violation with superluminal Majorana neutrinos at OPERA?

TL;DR

This paper proposes a phenomenological model where Majorana neutrinos acquire an imaginary mass term during Earth crust interaction, potentially explaining superluminal neutrino observations and suggesting Lorentz invariance violation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Majorana neutrino model with an imaginary mass term that fits experimental data, offering an alternative explanation for superluminal neutrino results.

Findings

Model fits OPERA, MINOS, and SN1987a data within errors

Imaginary mass term can be induced by Earth's crust interaction

Possible Lorentz invariance violation due to quantum gravity effects

Abstract

From the data release of OPERA - CNGS experiment, and publicly announced on 23 September 2011, we cast a phenomenological model based on a Majorana neutrino state carrying a fictitious imaginary mass term, already discussed by Majorana in 1932. This mass term can be induced by the interaction with the matter of the Earth's crust during the 735 Km travel. Within the experimental errors, we prove that the model fits with OPERA, MINOS and supernova SN1987a data. Possible violations to Lorentz invariance due to quantum gravity effects have been considered.