Cohen and Glashow featured by APS

November 30, 2011

Profs. Andrew Cohen and Sheldon Glashow have weighed in on a hot result in neutrino physics. The OPERA collaboration reported an experimental measurement consistent with neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light. The science reporting community and blogosphere covered this extensively when the result was announced on September 23. Cohen and Glashow say: "not so fast", by noting that such neutrinos would lose energy by a mechanism analogous to cherenkov radiation. Their estimates cast doubt on the interpretation of the CERN result and provide new and tight constraints on superluminality. The work is published in Physical Review Letters and was spotlighted by APS as well as BU Today.

http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.181803

http://www.bu.edu/today/2011/charge-of-the-light-brigade/

Other reports include:

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111020/full/news.2011.605.html

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21064-neutrino-watch-speed-claim-baffles-cern-theoryfest.html

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/11/03/im-shocked-shocked-to-find-there-are-neutrinos-going-on-here/

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/335309/title/Critics_take_aim_at_fast_neutrinos