1111.6986 (J. D. Franson)

Reduced Photon Velocities in the OPERA Neutrino Experiment and Supernova
1987a    [PDF]

J. D. Franson

The recent OPERA experiment (Adam et al., arXiv:1109.4897v2) appears to
suggest that neutrinos may travel faster than the speed of light. A theory is
considered here in which the gravitational potential is included in the
Hamiltonian of quantum electrodynamics, which results in virtual electrons and
positrons having the same gravitational potential energy as real particles. A
calculation based on that assumption shows that the velocity of photons in a
gravitational potential should be reduced compared to that of neutrinos. The
estimated magnitude of this effect is too small to explain the results of the
OPERA experiment, but it does suggest a possible explanation for the anomalous
arrival time of the first burst of neutrinos observed during Supernova 1987a.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.6986