Beating the speed limit

[RJM Corbet]

Did I hear (or did I imagine it) that there is a particle that does travel faster than the speed of light? At the same time I think I heard that it is passing through the barrier from sub-light speed to faster that light speed that is not possible but it is possible to have a particle already traveling faster than the speed of light. Although that raises the question of how that speed was attained without traveling through the barrier in the first place.

Perhaps I dreamt it.

What is it, Mosaix?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

The Tachyon was proposed as a particle that could ONLY travel faster than light. It's really only soft SF now and not regarded as likely. It would break causality for a start. There are other problems too with any FTL particle.