what will be changing in theory of relativity if some thing crosses the speed of light 'c'? what will become of E=mc2??

Question

anonymous · Answer

Well, generally speaking there is some evidence that certain particles can exceed the speed of light. It doesn't change the validity of E=MC^2 for all conventional calculations.

anonymous · Answer

I think the conventional wisdom is that what might happen is that we find that c has a frequency dependence, meaning the speed of photons varies with their color -- red light travels slightly faster than blue light, for example.  In that scenario you would still not be able to exceed the speed of light -- it's just that this ultimate speed limit would vary slightly, depending on what kind of phenomenon you are.  I don't know how relativity would have to be reformulated to accomodate that.

The inability to travel at the speed of light is founded on a simple thought experiment: if you *could* travel at the speed of light, then when you looked at a light beam you'd see a static (non-moving) electric and magnetic field with no source (no charges or currents).  Such a thing contradicts Maxwell's Laws of Electrodynamics, which says you can only get an electric field if you have a charge (or time-varying magnetic field), and you can only get a magnetic field is you have a current (or time-varying electric field).

fretje · Answer

spook particle is the tachyon.

fretje · Answer

But that quest was finished in 2001 after findings of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada: the neutrino oscillates and can change into his 3 flavors and they have a mass.

fretje · Answer

pfwew, the Higgs bosons existence or non-existence will be revealed this year (from CERN). There was news that phycicists found a particle faster than light: the neutrino, but the neutrino got mass ten years ago. And now was found that if they would travel faster than light, they would have an imaginary mass. Hence named a spook particle. You go.

fretje · Answer

sorry: the last answer came first, i corrected it and it came last.

fretje · Answer

and i am fan of your Michio Kaku.  He is full of it.