Superluminal muon-neutrino velocity from a Fermi-point-splitting model of Lorentz violation

TL;DR

This paper proposes a Fermi-point-splitting model that allows muon neutrinos to travel faster than light in vacuum while maintaining causality, and predicts related neutrino velocity behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel FPS model that explains superluminal muon-neutrino velocities without violating causality principles.

Findings

Muon neutrino velocities can be superluminal in the model.

The model maintains a front velocity equal to c for all particles.

It predicts subluminal velocities for at least one other neutrino flavor.

Abstract

A particular Fermi-point-splitting (FPS) model is proposed, which allows, for finite values of the three-momentum, the group and phase velocities of the muon-flavor neutrino in vacuum to be superluminal (i.e., muon-neutrino velocities greater than c, the velocity of light in vacuum). Still, the proposed FPS model has a front velocity equal to c for all particles, which is known to be crucial for causality. If the muon-neutrino velocity is indeed superluminal as claimed by OPERA, the model predicts that at least one of the other two flavors of neutrinos has a subluminal velocity.