The 2,180th Meeting of the Society
October 8, 2004
Seven Reasons that Neutrinos May be Faster-Than-Light Tachyons
Robert Ehrlich
George Mason University
About the Lecture
Most physicists believe that material objects and information can not travel faster than c, the speed of light in vacuum. Tachyons, hypothetical faster-than-light particles were first proposed in 1962. Although direct experimental searches for tachyons have been negative, there are reasons to believe that neutrinos may be tachyonic.
About the Speaker
ROBERT EHRLICH is a professor of physics at George Mason University, where he chaired the department from 1977 to 89. He began his career after receiving a Ph. D. in physics from Columbia in 1964. Prior to joining George Mason, he held faculty positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, and the State University of New York at New Paltz, where he chaired the physics department for five years. Dr. Ehrlich has authored or edited twenty books, his most recent effort being “Nine Crazy Ideas in Science,” by Princeton University University Press. He has also authored over 60 articles on subjects such as particle physics, science education, and nuclear arms control. In recent years he has done research on tachyons—hypothetical particles than travel faster than light.