PRECOGNITION 28i
mous equations and replace "m" with "im," then something marvelous
happens. All of a sudden particles travel faster than light.
This result gives rise to strange situations. If a tachyon travels
through matter, it loses energy because it collides with atoms. But as it
loses energy, it speeds up, which further increases its collisions with
atoms. These collisions should cause it to lose more energy and hence
accelerate even faster. As this creates a vicious cycle, the tachyon naturally attains infinité velocity all by itself!
(Tachyons are different from antimatter and negative matter. Antimatter has positive energy, travels at less than the speed of light, and
can be created in our particle accelerators. It falls down under gravity,
according to theory. Antimatter corresponds to ordinary matter going
backward in time. Negative matter has negative energy and also travels less than the speed of light, but falls up under gravity. Negative matter has never been found in the laboratory. In large quantities, it can in
theory be used to fuel time machines. Tachyons travel faster than light
and have imaginary mass; it's not clear if they fall up or down under
gravity. They, too, have not been found in the laboratory.)
As bizarre as tachyons are, they have been seriously studied by
physicists, including the late Gerald Feinberg of Columbia University
and George Sudarshan of the University of Texas at Austin. The problem is that no one has ever seen a tachyon in the laboratory. The key
experimental evidence for tachyons would be a violation of causality.
Feinberg even suggested that physicists examine a laser beam before it
was switched on. If tachyons exist, then perhaps light from the laser
beam could be detected even before the apparatus was turned on.
In science fiction stories tachyons are regularly used to send messages back to the past to seers. But if one examines the physics it is not
clear if this is possible. Feinberg, for example, believed that the emission of a tachyon going forward in time was identical to the absorption
of a negative-energy tachyon going backward in time (similar to the
situation with regard to antimatter) and hence there was no violation
of causality.
Science fiction aside, today the modern interpretation of tachyons
is that they might have existed at the instant of the big bang, violating
mous equations and replace "m" with "im," then something marvelous
happens. All of a sudden particles travel faster than light.
This result gives rise to strange situations. If a tachyon travels
through matter, it loses energy because it collides with atoms. But as it
loses energy, it speeds up, which further increases its collisions with
atoms. These collisions should cause it to lose more energy and hence
accelerate even faster. As this creates a vicious cycle, the tachyon naturally attains infinité velocity all by itself!
(Tachyons are different from antimatter and negative matter. Antimatter has positive energy, travels at less than the speed of light, and
can be created in our particle accelerators. It falls down under gravity,
according to theory. Antimatter corresponds to ordinary matter going
backward in time. Negative matter has negative energy and also travels less than the speed of light, but falls up under gravity. Negative matter has never been found in the laboratory. In large quantities, it can in
theory be used to fuel time machines. Tachyons travel faster than light
and have imaginary mass; it's not clear if they fall up or down under
gravity. They, too, have not been found in the laboratory.)
As bizarre as tachyons are, they have been seriously studied by
physicists, including the late Gerald Feinberg of Columbia University
and George Sudarshan of the University of Texas at Austin. The problem is that no one has ever seen a tachyon in the laboratory. The key
experimental evidence for tachyons would be a violation of causality.
Feinberg even suggested that physicists examine a laser beam before it
was switched on. If tachyons exist, then perhaps light from the laser
beam could be detected even before the apparatus was turned on.
In science fiction stories tachyons are regularly used to send messages back to the past to seers. But if one examines the physics it is not
clear if this is possible. Feinberg, for example, believed that the emission of a tachyon going forward in time was identical to the absorption
of a negative-energy tachyon going backward in time (similar to the
situation with regard to antimatter) and hence there was no violation
of causality.
Science fiction aside, today the modern interpretation of tachyons
is that they might have existed at the instant of the big bang, violating