Can strong interactions accelerate ordinary particles faster than the speed of light?

Abstract

In this note I formulate the hypothesis that the maximal possible speed of an ordinary massive particle or of a physical signal under strong and electromagnetic interactions is not necessarily equal toc, but can be smaller thanc, bigger thanc, or even infinite, depending on the local physical characteristics (density, temperature,etc.) of the hadronic matter in which the particle or signal propagates. I then present a number of arguments of plausibility. Those of experimental nature range from the recent indications in nuclear physics via neutron interferometers of a conceivable breaking of theSU2 spin symmetry, to recent astrophysical data indicating the existence of ordinary matter traveling at speeds bigger thanc. The theoretical arguments of plausibility are based on the so-called Lie-admissible formulations, and are given by a Minkowski space generalization of the recently proposed structure models under strong internal forces as closed non-self-adjoint systems. These are systems which, when seen from an outside observer, verify the conventional conservation laws (exterior problem). However, at the level of dynamical behaviour of the constituents, all conventional symmetries are broken to permit unrestricted forces and dynamical conditions (interior problem), as established, for instance, by interior motions in our Earth. The consistency of the model is proved. It is shown in this way that the strict compliance with the special relativity of a particle in exterior treatment, such as a proton in an accelerator, is fully compatible with the violation of the same relativity in the interior problem, including the achievement of speed higher thanc by the constituents. A number of epistemological arguments of plausibility are then presented. As clearly expressed by Lorentz, Poincare, and Einstein in their limpid writings, the special relativity was conceived for isolated, pointlike, particles moving in vacuum under long-range, action-at-a-distance interactions. The physical arena considered is fundamentally different because it refers to the motion of extended particles within the hadronic medium composed by other particles. The evident lack of homogeneity and isotropy of the medium then implies the inapplicability of the foundations of the special relativity, let alone the boosts responsible for the upper boundc of the speed.