Three errors in the article:" The OPERA neutrino velocity result and the synchronisation of clocks, arXiv:1109.6160"

Olivier Besida (1)

1 DPhP - Département de Physique des Particules (ex SPP)

We found three mistakes in the article " The OPERA neutrino velocity result and the synchronisation of clocks" by Contaldi \cite{Contaldi}. First, the definition of the angle of the latitude in the geoid description leads to a prolate spheroid (rugby ball shape) instead of an oblate spheroid with the usual equatorial flattening. Second, Contaldi forgot a cosine of the latitude in the centripetal contribution term. And last but not least, a profound conceptual mistake was done in believing that an atomic clock or any timekeeper apparatus was carried in a journey by car or plane between CERN and Gran Sasso; instead of that atomic clocks are continuously resynchronized through a GPS device, and the variation of the potential term applies only for the neutrino travel itself. Thus instead of a $\Delta t \approx 30ns $ correction claimed by the author in a travel of 12 hours plus 4 days at rest for an atomic clock, we have found a time correction only for the neutrino itself $\Delta t=3.88 \, 10^{-16} s$! That means, that this paper \cite{Contaldi} does not give the right explanation why the neutrino is seen travelling faster than the speed of light in the OPERA neutrino experiment.

Mots clés: neutrino; tachyon

Domaines: Physique des Hautes Energies - Expérience [hep-ex]; Relativité Générale et Cosmologie Quantique [gr-qc]

Olivier Besida. Three errors in the article:" The OPERA neutrino velocity result and the synchronisation of clocks, arXiv:1109.6160". 2011. ⟨hal-00632059⟩