Physics (Apr 2022)

Relativity 4-ever?

  • Olga Chashchina,
  • Zurab Silagadze

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/physics4020028
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 2
pp. 421 – 439

Abstract

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This essay is about superluminal motion. It is generally believed that special relativity prohibits movements faster than the speed of light. It is explained which motion is actually forbidden by special relativity and why. Tachyons are breafly discussed and it is explained that, due to internal instability, tachyon fields cannot be used to transmit information faster than the speed of light. However, as John Stuart Bell remarked, “what is proved by the impossibility proofs is lack of imagination”. Inspired by the Frenkel–Kontorova model of crystal dislocations, we demonstrate the way to overcome the light speed barrier by introducing elvisebrions. Elvisebrions are defined as objects that can exist in the case when some hidden sectors, very weakly interacting with the visible sector, are either not Lorentz invariant, or Lorentz invariant but with different limiting velocities. In this case, elvisebrions can move in a superluminal manner without violating our existing physical models.

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