2011/10/09 by Shogo Tanimura, Tanimura, Shogo
Physics and Astronomy · #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Neutrino Physics Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1110.1790
5 pages, no figure
arxiv created 2011/10/09 · openalex publication_date 2011/10/09 · arxiv updated 2011/10/11 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The result of the OPERA experiment revealed that the velocity of muon-neutrinos was larger than the speed of light. We argue that this apparent superluminal velocity can be interpreted as a weak value, which is a new concept recently studied in the context of quantum physics. The OPERA experiment setup forms a scheme that manifests the neutrino velocity as a weak value. The velocity defined in the scheme of weak measurement can exceed the speed of light. The weak velocity is not a concept associated to a single phenomenon but it is a statistical concept defined by accumulating data at separated places and by comparing the data. Neither information nor physical influence is conveyed at the weak velocity. Thus the superluminal velocity in the sense of weak value does not contradict the causality law. We propose also a model for calculating the neutrino velocity with taking neutrino oscillation into account.