February 23, 2012

expert reaction to possible errors in OPERA neutrino measurement

News from the OPERA collaboration at CERN that they had found two possible sources of error in the apparent recording of neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light. The SMC sent out responses.

Prof Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey who promised to eat his boxers if neutrinos were shown to travel faster than light, said:

“The OPERA scientists are showing great integrity in announcing these potential faults in their measurements, so let’s wait and see. But I suspect, now more than ever, that both Einstein’s theory and my boxer shorts are safe.”

Prof Dave Wark, Director of Particle Physics at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, said:

“These latest developments show how hard the OPERA team is working to understand the results. Just as it would have been unwise to jump to the conclusion that the initial results were the result of an anomaly, it would be unwise to make any assumptions now. It is the nature of science that theories have to be tested, re-tested and then tested again.”

Dr Alfons Weber from STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the University of Oxford and a member of both the T2K and MINOS experiments who are currently independently measuring the neutrino time of flight, said:

“Measuring the neutrino velocity is very complicated and many effects can influence the results. The OPERA collaboration did a very careful job in analysing their data. At this point it is not clear how their newly discovered effects will influence the final result and we should wait for their announcements. No matter what they find, it is important that their measurement is independently repeated by others.”