Question: Do you believe in a parallel universe theory as there have been suggestions the neutrinos travel faster than light?

Daniel Scully answered on 23 Nov 2011:

One of the first ideas people go to as a possible explanation is extra dimensions.

We commonly accept our Universe has 4 dimensions – 3 space and 1 time. But if there were a 5th (or more) dimension which was too small for us to perceive then particles might be able to travel through this dimension as well.

Travelling through extra dimensions could be different to travelling through normal space and it might therefore allow particles to travel faster than the speed of light.

Certain properties of particles, like their mass or the forces they feel, may allow some particles to travel through that dimension more than others, hence why we might only see neutrinos travelling too fast and not other particles.

An extra dimension is not quite the same as a parallel universe. While there are theories which contain parallel universes, they wouldn’t help solve the neutrino problem – the neutrinos are travelling to fast in THIS universe.

As to whether I believe it… I’m not yet convinced that neutrinos are travelling faster than the speed of light… so I’ll worry about it when I am. But I suspect extra dimensions are the explanation most people will turn to first.