Superluminal Neutrinos without Revolution

Abstract

The velocity anomaly recently reported by the OPERA collaboration appears strikingly at odds with the theory of special relativity. I offer a reinterpretation which removes this conflict, to wit that neutrinos yield a truer measurement of Einstein's limiting speed, and that light and indeed all other matter are retarded by additional interactions with the dark universe. I discuss existing experimental constraints and show that such a notion, considered cosmologically, can be subsumed in the dark-energy equation of state in an expanding Friedman-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe. Planned measurements of the temporal variation in redshift have the potential to distinguish the possibilities.