Eric Sakk
Eric Sakk | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Conceptual framework for faster-than-light neutrinos |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
Eric Sakk is a researcher known for a speculative interpretation of the 2011 OPERA faster-than-light neutrino reports. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Work
With co-author Aradhya P. Kumar, Sakk posted "A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos" to arXiv in February 2012. The paper argues that apparent superluminal neutrino times-of-flight need not violate special relativity. Sakk and Kumar propose that, at very small scales, spacetime takes on a Kerr-type metric, so that strong frame-dragging effects near the Planck length compress the effective path length a neutrino traverses relative to what a large-scale observer would expect. They attribute the microscopic path-length compression to the formation of "micro-wormholes" near the Planck scale and frame the effect as evidence in support of, rather than a contradiction of, general relativity at quantum scales. The proposal lies outside the scientific mainstream, and the original OPERA measurement was subsequently traced to instrumental error.