English

Bimetric Relativity and the Opera Neutrino Experiment

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2011-10-13 v3

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of explaining the propagation of neutrinos measured by the OPERA experiment with δvν=(vνc0)/c0\delta v_\nu=(v_\nu-c_0)/c_0, where c0c_0 is the speed of light in vacuum, using a bimetric relativity model. The geometry of the bimetric model has two metrics in spacetime. One metric gμνg_{\mu\nu} possesses a null cone along which massless gravitons and photons travel with the constant speed c0c_0, while the other `matter' metric g^μν=gμν+βψμψν{\hat g}_{\mu\nu}=g_{\mu\nu}+\beta\psi_\mu\psi_\nu has a null cone with a bigger speed c>c0c > c_0 with 0<δvνc/c00 < \delta v_\nu\ll c/c_0. This second cone structure of spacetime prevents the neutrinos from being superluminal tachyons vν<cv_\nu < c. Such superluminal neutrinos would lead to severe depletion of neutrino energy, refuting the OPERA result. The charge-current source of the background gauge field ψμ\psi_\mu is assumed to be baryon charge and the strength of the field ψμ\psi_\mu is distance dependent, explaining the observation that for supernova SN1987a vνc0v_\nu\simeq c_0. Altering the path of the neutrinos through the earth or performing a space experiment can test the OPERA neutrino experimental result.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1110.1330,
  title  = {Bimetric Relativity and the Opera Neutrino Experiment},
  author = {J. W. Moffat},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1110.1330},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

6 pages, 1 figure, typo corrected. Minor corrections

R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:16:14.497Z