Testing the OPERA Superluminal Neutrino Anomaly at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method to test the superluminal neutrino hypothesis reported by OPERA by analyzing decay signals from highly boosted top quarks at the LHC, providing an independent verification approach.

Contribution

It introduces a new experimental test at the LHC to verify superluminal neutrinos, building on prior theoretical refutations of OPERA's claim.

Findings

Pair-emission signals can be detected at the LHC if neutrinos are superluminal.

LHC top quark decays can serve as a probe for superluminal neutrino effects.

The proposed method offers an independent test of superluminal neutrino hypotheses.

Abstract

The OPERA collaboration has reported the observation of superluminal muon neutrinos, whose speed $v_\nu$ exceeds that of light $c$, with $(v_\nu - c)/c \simeq 2.5 \times 10^{-5}$. In a recent work, Cohen and Glashow (CG) have refuted this claim by noting that such neutrinos will lose energy, by pair-emission of particles, at unacceptable rates. Following the CG arguments, we point out that pair-emissions consistent with the OPERA anomaly can lead to detectable signals from decays of highly boosted top quarks at the LHC, allowing an independent test of the superluminal neutrino hypothesis.