Could the Discovery of Faster-Than-Light Speed Rewrite Physics?

[Physics-Learner]

if it was discovered that something can be made to travel faster than the speed of light, does that completely rewrite physics as we know it ?

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes.

 

[pervect]

Tachyon's might not be too bad as far as fitting into the current framework of physics, though they couldn't carry information (if they are to fit into the current framework).

 

[Physics-Learner]

thank you.

 

[Buzzworks]

This is yet the least fictional theory on 'faster-than-light' I've found so far.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergosphere

I've just created a thread regarding that, and still waiting for answers.

 

[arkajad]

Does that completely rewrite physics as we know it ?

No. Not physics. Perhaps some textbooks.

 

[nickthrop101]

I don't think that anything that we could detect could travel faster than light, but say if you fell through a wormhole, you would be traveling at the speed of light, but you would be going faster than light as you've gone through a short cut

 

[Physics-Learner]

does physics think that wormholes exist ?

my understanding of a wormhole (at least from star trek) is that you travel from point a to point b through some mechanism whereby the actual distance traveled is less than what it otherwise would be ?

 

[Pengwuino]

does physics think that wormholes exist ?

my understanding of a wormhole (at least from star trek) is that you travel from point a to point b through some mechanism whereby the actual distance traveled is less than what it otherwise would be ?

They're hypothetical and fit in some theories. There are also theories that discount their existence.

As to the main point, if we found a particle that traveled at a speed that was able to cross the speed of light boundary (that is, not tachyons since they travel exclusively at greater than the speed of light) in any significant way, I'd imagine there would be a massive overhaul required of physics. For example, if we detected a particle accelerating from 0.5c to 1.3c, something would be seriously amiss.

 

[Physics-Learner]

thanks guys,

here is a url that i think is simple and informative.

http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_sp_sl.html

 

[negru]

What are you guys calling a tachyon, to be precise? In qft/string theory, getting a tachyon just means you're doing perturbation theory around a bad ground state, ie at the top of a potential "well", not the bottom.

There's absolutely no reason why the tachyon should exist (if that is the origin).

 

[Physics-Learner]

i am sure that there are many things that people are astonished by regarding the speed of light.

but if my recall is correct, someone traveling on a beam of light will measure no distance traveled, and no time elapsed, while going from A to B. while others of course measure those distances in thousands of light years, and thousands of years in time. this is just in the direction in which he is heading.

but for this to be true, there is no distance or time for the person on the light beam. no matter where A and B are from an onlooker's perspective, the light beam measures no distance and no time.

so in effect, the light beam is everywhere at once. or nowhere at never.

i do suspect that time and light both play significant roles in stuff that we have yet to discover.

 

[negru]

but if my recall is correct

So you've traveled on a light beam before?

 

[Physics-Learner]

yes, it was quite enLIGHTening.

 

[lightarrow]

if it was discovered that something can be made to travel faster than the speed of light, does that completely rewrite physics as we know it ?

Maybe it could turn out to be light which doesn't travel at the limit speed c. In that case, physics wouldn't change a lot; the complications would be for what concerns electromagnetic fields, since Proca's equations should be substituted to Maxwell's equations.

 

[Demystifier]

Tachyon's might not be too bad as far as fitting into the current framework of physics, though they couldn't carry information (if they are to fit into the current framework).

Why do you think that tachyons couldn't carry information? Perhaps because of grandfather-like paradoxes?

 

[SinghRP]

Tachyons would have imaginary mass.

Photons have zero inertial mass, they are stuck at speed c and have two degrees of polarizations.