Testing the OPERA Superluminal Neutrino Anomaly at the LHC

Abstract

The OPERA collaboration has reported the observation of superluminal muon neutrinos, whose speed $v_\nu$ exceeds that of light $c$, with $(v_\nu - c)/c \simeq 2.5 \times 10^{-5}$. In a recent work, Cohen and Glashow (CG) have refuted this claim by noting that such neutrinos will lose energy, by pair-emission of particles, at unacceptable rates. Following the CG arguments, we point out that pair-emissions consistent with the OPERA anomaly can lead to detectable signals from decays of highly boosted top quarks at the LHC, allowing an independent test of the superluminal neutrino hypothesis.