2024-07-22 06:00:11
Faster-than-light particles called tachyons have long been considered a theoretical curiosity incompatible with special relativity. A new study may change that perception.
Physicists from the universities of Warsaw and Oxford have shown that the prejudices against tachyons are unfounded. In fact, these hypothetical particles offer us a better understanding of the causal structure of relativity.
The idea of motion beyond the speed of light (superluminal) is one of the most controversial topics in physics. Tachyons, derived from the Greek tachys meaning fast, were perceived as entities incompatible with the theory of relativity restraint.
The main objections to the existence of tachyons included the supposed instability of their ground state, which would have led to the formation of superluminal “avalanches” of particles. In addition, the number of particles observed was thought to depend on the observer, which is incompatible with classical physics where the number of particles should remain constant. Finally, the possibility that these particles possess negative energies was a major obstacle to their acceptance within the framework of the theory quantum.
A group of researchers, including Jerzy Paczos and Kacper Dębski, discovered that these problems arose from incomplete boundary conditions in previous theories. Incorporating the final state of the system, in addition to its initial state, resolved these difficulties, making tachyon theory consistent.
Andrzej Dragan, one of the authors, explains that this new approach allows to consider the influence of the future on the present, a concept already existing but rarely applied in quantum physics. This has made it possible to extend the space of states and to integrate tachyons.
The researchers also predict the emergence of a new type of quantum entanglement that mixes past and future, a consequence of the broadening of boundary conditions. This raises the question of theobservation potential of tachyons in the future.
According to the authors’ hypothesis, tachyons play a crucial role in the process of spontaneous symmetry breaking, linked to the formation of matter. The excitations of the champ Higgs cells could thus have traveled at superluminal speeds before the breaking of symmetry.
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