Can gravitation accelerate neutrinos?

TL;DR

This paper explores whether neutrinos can achieve superluminal speeds due to gravitational effects by analyzing the motion of spinning particles in a Schwarzschild background, revealing conditions for superluminal propagation.

Contribution

It provides an exact solution for spinning particle motion in curved spacetime that suggests neutrinos could potentially attain superluminal velocities under certain gravitational conditions.

Findings

Superluminal motion is theoretically possible for small mass particles like neutrinos.

A relation between mass, energy, and angular momentum determines superluminal conditions.

The study extends the understanding of particle motion beyond geodesic paths in General Relativity.

Abstract

The Lagrangian equations of motion for massive spinning test particles (tops) moving on a gravitational background using General Relativity are presented. The paths followed by tops are nongeodesic. An exact solution for the motion of tops on a Schwarzschild background which allows for superluminal propagation of tops is studied. It is shown that the solution becomes relevant for particles with small masses, such as neutrinos. This general result is used to calculate the necessary condition to produce superluminal motion in part of the trajectory of a small mass particle in a weak gravitational field. The condition for superluminal motion establishes a relation between the mass, energy and total angular momentum of the particle.