Scientists with the Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus (OPERA) at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (GSNL), in Italy, a few weeks ago proposed the existence of neutrinos traveling faster than light. A researcher now provides a possible explanation for the readings.
The data the OPERA team submitted for peer review were very accurate, since the research team itself could not believe the readings. What the instruments showed was that a neutrino beam was arriving at GSNL 60 nanoseconds before light could theoretically get there.
If these readings are true, then it means that Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is not entirely true, and that a large swath of modern science is intrinsically flawed. A large number of theories would have to be rewritten.
But Ronald van Elburg at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, now proposes via the journal
arXiv that the 60 nanosecond delay is caused by small errors in the GPS satellites used to synchronize the clocks at GSNL and CERN, where the beams originated. This idea is now being put to the test.
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