R. Tomaschitz 2012 EPL 98 19001 doi:10.1209/0295-5075/98/19001
R. Tomaschitz
Show affiliationsPair emission by superluminal neutrinos is shown to be causality violating in the 10–50 GeV range covered by the OPERA experiment. Thus, the energy density of a freely propagating superluminal neutrino current is not affected by energy loss due to e+ e− pair creation, in accordance with the unperturbed energy profile observed by ICARUS. Interaction processes involving sub- and superluminal particles give rise to time inversions in the rest frames of the subluminal constituents, resulting in causality violating predetermination. Therefore, kinematic causality constraints in addition to energy-momentum conservation are necessary to exclude causality violation outside the lightcone. Electron-positron pair production by superluminal muon neutrinos is forbidden in the OPERA energy range, as the kinematic constraints on the neutrino frequencies and wave vectors required by causality and energy-momentum conservation cannot simultaneously be satisfied.
98.80.Jk Mathematical and relativistic aspects of cosmology
Issue 1 (April 2012)
Received 6 February 2012, accepted for publication 12 March 2012
Published 13 April 2012
R. Tomaschitz 2012 EPL 98 19001