Comments on the recent result of the "Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam"

TL;DR

The paper discusses the OPERA neutrino velocity anomaly, exploring the possibility that superbradyons, hypothetical superluminal particles, could explain the results through mixing with standard particles, challenging conventional relativity.

Contribution

It proposes a theoretical model involving superbradyons and their mixing with standard particles to explain neutrino velocity anomalies, extending previous ideas since 1995.

Findings

Superbradyons could account for neutrino velocity anomalies.

Standard Lorentz symmetry violations do not fully explain the data.

A spinorial space-time model suggests space translations form an SU(2) group.

Abstract

The recent result by the OPERA experiment, confirming a trend already present in a previous result by MINOS, raises the question of a possible strong violation of standard relativity. In particular, the particles of the standard model would have different critical speeds in vacuum, and such differences would be measurable with nowadays facilities. Although several experimental and phenomenological issues remain open, the situation deserves been studied closely from a theoretical point of view. The data cannot be explained by conventional extrapolations of Planck-scale Lorentz symmetry violation (LSV) patterns. But, as already stressed in our previous papers since 1995, a weak mixing of standard particles with superbradyons (particles with positive mass and energy, and a critical speed in vacuum much larger than the speed of light) can explain such an effect. Superbradyons can be the ultimate constituents of matter (superluminal preons), but they may simultaneously exist in our Universe as free particles just as light can cross a transparent material medium. In this case, a direct mixing between superbradyons and the particles of the standard model would be unavoidable. After briefly examining the experimental situation and the problems it may raise, we comment on the possibility of a superbradyonic mixing, as well as on the implications of a spinorial description of space-time where space translations would form a SU(2) compact group.