Are tachyons real and why haven't we found them yet?

[daveed]

what exactly are tachyons, and how were they ever predicted? and do they even exist?

 

[mathman]

Special relativity in theory allows for particles to go faster than light, although they could never slow down to light speed. These have been given the name tachyons. However there is no evidence they exist.

 

[Tom McCurdy]

Before String theory incorperated Super Symmetery to become Super String Theory tachyons were required for the theories to work out to fix infitinties

here is a site with more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyon#Field_and_string_theories

 

[daveed]

wow, weird properties.
"as its energy decreases, its velocity increases."

...??

 

[jtolliver]

wow, weird properties.
"as its energy decreases, its velocity increases."

...??

and they also have imaginary mass

 

[Goalie_Ca]

Of course tachyons exist. Don't you remember when data discovered the cloaked romulan vesels?

Of course then there's this amusing limerick I've heard.

There was a young lady named Bright,
Whose speed was far faster than light.
She went out one day,
In a relative way,
And returned the previous night!
-Reginald Buller

edit: found the author :D

 

[LURCH]

I have presented this argument in other threads, but tachyons do not exist or, at the very least, will never be discovered. See, if we were evr going to discover a particle to which the laws of causality apply in reverse, we would have found it sometime before we started looking.