The electroweak theory with a priori superluminal neutrinos and its physical consequences

Abstract

In recent experiments conducted by the OPERA collaboration, researchers claimed the observation of neutrinos propagating faster than the light speed in vacuum. If correct, their results raise several issues concerning the special theory of relativity and the standard model of fundamental particles. Here, the physical consequences of superluminal neutrinos described by a tachyonic Dirac lagrangian, are explored within the standard model of electroweak interactions. If neutrino tachyonic behavior is allowed, it could provide a simple explanation for the parity violation in weak interactions and why electroweak theory has a chiral aspect, leading to invariance under a $SU_{L}(2)\times U_{Y}(1)$ gauge group. Right-handed neutrino becomes sterile and decoupled from the other particles quite naturally.