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Source– This post on Trachyons is based on the article “The universe may be dominated by particles that break causality and move faster than light, new paper suggests” published in “Live Science” on 18th April 2024.
Why in the News?
Physicists have recently proposed the radical idea that our universe is dominated by tachyons, a hypothetical kind of particle that always moves faster than light.
About Tachyons
1. They are hypothetical kind of particles that move faster than light.
2. The term “tachyon” was introduced by physicist Gerald Feinberg in 1967 to describe hypothetical particles that could travel faster than light.
It is different from “bradyons” like protons, electrons, and neutrons, which move slower than light.
3. Unlike bradyons, they have not been observed and are theorized to possess imaginary mass, meaning their mass squared would be negative.
4. According to special relativity, particles with mass cannot attain or exceed the speed of light in a vacuum because their energy would become infinite.
5. This intriguing property implies that tachyons could potentially travel faster than light without violating current understanding of the laws of physics.
6. Tachyons would slow down if they gained energy and accelerate if they lost energy.
8. Scientists have conducted a few experiments in search of tachyons using a detector called a Cherenkov detector.
9. In this setup, particles move through a medium, and if their speed exceeds the speed of light for that medium, Cherenkov radiation occurs.
10. It is to be noted that while nothing can travel faster than light in a vacuum, certain mediums allow particles to potentially exceed the cosmic speed limit.
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