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Thursday, February 23, 2012
The Neutrino's Saga - Part 8
The saga of superluminal neutrinos seems to be coming to an end. Everything indicates that the results obtained by the OPERA Collaboration in Italy were due to an error in measuring instruments. According to a source connected to the experiment, the observed time discrepancy, 60 nanosecond that was measured, appears to be related to a poor connection between an optical fiber cable which connects the GPS receiver, which is used to correct the time of flight of neutrinos,and a circuit board of a computer.
Remember that the problem began in September 2011 when scientists were experimenting a flux of neutrinos from CERN (Geneva) to the Gran Sasso's laboratory in Italy (about 455 miles away), and reported results that seemed to indicate that the neutrinos traveled faster than the speed of light, reaching about 60 nanoseconds sooner than expected.
After the best tight connection, the researchers found that the time measured for the data running through the distance corresponding to length of optical fiber was less than 60 nanoseconds which had previously obtained, which would nullify the time difference obtained on the flight of the neutrinos. It seems therefore to be found a very simple explanation for the discrepancy of time that had been found in initial experiments. However, it is also necessary to obtain new data to confirm this situation.
It therefore indicates that the Einstein's Theory of Relativity once again winning out over a test of its validity. Since this theory has been confirmed many times in several experiments, most people suspected that there must be some error in the experiment had been conducted, which would escape to the researchers. This error appears to have been now found. It now remains to be confirmed.
You can read about this news here and here.
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