Superluminal Neutrinos At OPERA Confront Pion Decay Kinematics

Authors

Ramanath Cowsick, Washington University in St Louis
Shmuel Nussinov, Chapman UniversityFollow
Utpal Sarkar, Washington University in St Louis

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

Abstract

Violation of Lorentz invariance (VLI) has been suggested as an explanation of the superluminal velocities of muon neutrinos reported by OPERA. In this Letter, we show that the amount of VLI required to explain this result poses severe difficulties with the kinematics of the pion decay, extending its lifetime and reducing the momentum carried away by the neutrinos. We show that the OPERA experiment limits alpha = (upsilon(v) - c)/c < 4 x 10(-6). We then take recourse to cosmic-ray data on the spectrum of muons and neutrinos generated in Earth's atmosphere to provide a stronger bound on VLI: (upsilon - c)/c < 10(-12).

Comments

This article was originally published in Physical Review Letters, volume 107, issue 25, in 2011. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.251801

Recommended Citation

Cowsik, Ramanath, Shmuel Nussinov, and Utpal Sarkar. "Superluminal neutrinos at OPERA confront pion decay kinematics." Physical review letters 107.25 (2011): 251801. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.251801

Peer Reviewed

1

Copyright

American Physical Society