TACHYON
A tachyon is a hypothetical particle that is theorized to always travel faster than the speed of light (c) in a vacuum. The word itself comes from the Greek work tachys, meaning swift. The existence of tachyons is generally considered inconsistent with the known laws of physics, but they are allowed by the mathematics of special relativity, provided they have some unusual properties.
THE PROBLEM OF CAUSALITY
The main reason physicists are skeptical about the real-world existence of tachyons is that they would violate the fundamental principle of causality (cause and effect). If a particle can travel faster than the speed of light, then in some frames of reference, an observer could see the effect happen before its cause. This is because faster-than light travels could be interpreted traveling backwards in time, leading to logical paradoxes(like the grandfather paradox).
THEORETICAL CONTEXT
• Relativity: Special relativity sets the speed of light (c) as a limit that massive particles can approach but never reach/ However, the equations don't explicitly forbid particles that start above c and can only exist above c- these are the tachyons.
• String Theory: Tachyonic fields have appeared in certain versions of string theory. However, in this context they don't represent real faster-than-light particles instead, they signal an instability in the system, indication that the system is at a local maximum of energy and will decay into a stable, non-tachyonic state.
In summary tachyons are purely a theoretical concept used to explore the limits of physics, and there has been no verifiable experimental evidence of a real particle behaving this way.
TACHYON
PROPERTY: Hypothetical Particle
SPEED: Always greater than c
REST MASS: Imaginary (mathematically, a negative value under a square root)
ENERGY & SPEED: Energy decreases as speed increases (requires infinite energy to slow down c)
BRADYON
PROPERTY: Normal Particle
SPEED: Always less than c
REST MASS: Real & positive
ENERGY & SPEED: Energy increases as speed increases (requires infinite energy to reach c)
Jessica Kim
Photographer
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TACHYON
PROPERTY: Hypothetical Particle
SPEED: Always greater than c
REST MASS: Imaginary (mathematically, a negative value under a square root)
ENERGY & SPEED: Energy decreases as speed increases (requires infinite energy to slow down c)
BRADYON
PROPERTY: Normal Particle
SPEED: Always less than c
REST MASS: Real & positive
ENERGY & SPEED: Energy increases as speed increases (requires infinite energy to reach c)
Jessica Kim
Photographer