Constraints on the interpretation of the superluminal motion of neutrinos at OPERA

Understand

Various approaches aim to describe the recent analysis by the OPERA experiment, which indicates that neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light.

• We demonstrate that any such theoretical or experimental explanation must not destroy the complicated (nonlinear) structure of the proton waveform recovered in the neutrino signal.
• As one example, consider that only a fraction of the neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light, such as sterile neutrinos.
• We fit the OPERA data including this fraction as a free variable, assuming that the OPERA result is correct.