Ernst Trojan
Ernst Trojan | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Superluminal neutrino and tachyon Fermi-gas models |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics |
Ernst Trojan is a theoretical physicist known for a series of papers on exotic matter, tachyon thermodynamics, and superluminal neutrino propagation. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Work
Trojan has authored numerous preprints on arXiv, frequently in collaboration with George V. Vlasov, dealing with the thermodynamics and acoustics of hypothetical faster-than-light ("tachyon") matter. His papers include work on the specific heat and entropy of a tachyon Fermi gas, the stability and causality conditions of tachyon gases, "tachyon stars" (self-gravitating bodies of ideal tachyon Fermi gas), and shock waves and discontinuities in superconducting cosmic strings.
Prompted by the 2011 OPERA and MINOS reports of apparently superluminal neutrinos, Trojan proposed models in which neutrinos travel faster than light. In "Superluminal self-interacting neutrino" (arXiv:1201.2085) he derives an energy spectrum from a nonlinear (self-interacting) Dirac equation, arguing that certain vector-type self-interactions reproduce the reported velocity–energy dependence while scalar interactions do not. A companion paper, "Superluminal neutrino energy spectrum of OPERA and MINOS," analyses the reported energy dependence using power-law approximations. These proposals lie outside mainstream particle physics, and the original superluminal-neutrino measurements were later attributed to instrumental error.