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dimension10
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A tachyon is a hypothesized particle that has imaginary mass (imaginary numbers) and moves faster than light speed. I don't believe in it because it can't have imaginary mass, what about you?
It's not good practice to dismiss possibilities based on thinking the math is too "weird"--do you also object to the use of wavefunctions in quantum mechanics, which can have complex (real + imaginary) amplitudes? A more physical reason to object to tachyons is that according to relativity any particle that would allow for FTL signal transmission would also allow signals to be transmitted backwards in time (see here), and there are also some more complicated arguments against them from quantum field theory discussed here. Aside from these theoretical objections, there is also the fact that no empirical evidence has been found to support their existence!dimension10 said:A tachyon is a hypothesized particle that has imaginary mass (imaginary numbers) and moves faster than light speed. I don't believe in it because it can't have imaginary mass, what about you?
JesseM said:It's not good practice to dismiss possibilities based on thinking the math is too "weird"--do you also object to the use of wavefunctions in quantum mechanics, which can have complex (real + imaginary) amplitudes? A more physical reason to object to tachyons is that according to relativity any particle that would allow for FTL signal transmission would also allow signals to be transmitted backwards in time (see here), and there are also some more complicated arguments against them from quantum field theory discussed here. Aside from these theoretical objections, there is also the fact that no empirical evidence has been found to support their existence!
dimension10 said:but imaginary mass means like how do its particles look like?
Essentially, you are saying, "I do not understand this, therefore it cannot be true." That's not a valid argument!dimension10 said:but imaginary mass means like how do its particles look like? if the tachyon itself is the particle, how much matter does it have? imaginary is the answer. means the particle itself is imaginary?
What does the mass have to do with what the particle "looks like"? A photon has zero mass, do you think that means the photon doesn't exist? Mass is just a mathematical quantity associated with the particle that helps determine how it behaves, not fundamentally different from, say, charge (which can be positive or zero or negative--do you think negative charge "means the particle itself is negative"?)dimension10 said:but imaginary mass means like how do its particles look like? if the tachyon itself is the particle, how much matter does it have? imaginary is the answer. means the particle itself is imaginary?
dimension10 said:A tachyon is a hypothesized particle that has imaginary mass (imaginary numbers) and moves faster than light speed. I don't believe in it because it can't have imaginary mass, what about you?
There are no basic principles of physics that rule out imaginary mass. Don't take the word "imaginary" too literally, it's just a technical term that has no real connection with its English meaning; as I mentioned earlier, imaginary numbers already have an important place in physics in the sense that the amplitude of the quantum wavefunction is in general a sum of an imaginary number and a real number.qsefthuko66 said:Having imaginary mass? Going faster than light? It cannot have imaginary mass so they probably do not exist.
dimension10 said:A tachyon is a hypothesized particle that has imaginary mass (imaginary numbers) and moves faster than light speed. I don't believe in it because it can't have imaginary mass, what about you?
A tachyon would not have imaginary speed, it would have a real speed, larger than c. For a massive particle, the total energy (rest mass energy + kinetic energy) is given by E=gamma*mc^2, with gamma = [tex]\frac{1}{\sqrt{1 - v^2/c^2}}[/tex]. For v > c, gamma is imaginary, so if the rest mass m is imaginary as well, E will be a real number.qsefthuko66 said:Well I do now. Imaginary mass=i
imaginary speed=i
JesseM said:What does the mass have to do with what the particle "looks like"? A photon has zero mass, do you think that means the photon doesn't exist? Mass is just a mathematical quantity associated with the particle that helps determine how it behaves, not fundamentally different from, say, charge (which can be positive or zero or negative--do you think negative charge "means the particle itself is negative"?)
Also, please don't attach too much significance to the label "imaginary", it's just an arbitrary label mathematicians came up with for the square root of a negative number, it has nothing to do with the ordinary English sense of the word "imaginary" as unreal or existing only in the mind.
Well, like I said there are some other reasons to be highly skeptical that they actually exist in the real world, like the fact that according to relativity any ability to send faster-than-light signals would also allow you to send signals backwards in time and violate causality. I was just saying that pointing to the imaginary mass of tachyons is not a very good argument for ruling them out, but there are better arguments for thinking they don't exist.dimension10 said:OK, now, I've started to think that tachyons are true,,, though they are used to paradox theories (like the bosonic string theory)
The metric line element for proper time (which could be integrated along a timelike worldline to get total proper time) is [tex]d\tau = \sqrt{dt^2 - (1/c^2)(dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2)}[/tex], so if you pick a spacelike interval this gives an imaginary value for the proper time.Matterwave said:I don't think I've ever heard the "distance is imaginary time" argument, can you clarify?
A tachyon is a hypothetical particle that is believed to have imaginary mass and can potentially travel faster than the speed of light.
Having imaginary mass means that the mass of a tachyon is a complex number, rather than a real number like most particles. This is a concept that is still being explored and studied by scientists.
The theory of relativity, which is a fundamental concept in physics, states that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Therefore, the idea of tachyons traveling faster than light is still considered hypothetical and has not been proven.
If tachyons do exist and can travel faster than light, it could have major implications for our understanding of the laws of physics. It could also have potential applications in fields such as communication and transportation.
Currently, there is no experimental evidence to support the existence of tachyons. However, some theoretical models and equations have suggested their potential existence, and scientists continue to research and explore this concept.