Abstract
As it is well known, classical special relativity allows the existence of
three different kinds of particles: bradyons, luxons and tachyons. Bradyons
have non-zero mass and hence always travel slower than light. Luxons are
particles with zero mass, like the photon, and they always travel with
invariant velocity. Tachyons are hypothetical superluminal particles that
always move faster than light. The existence of bradyons and luxons is firmly
established, while the tachyons were never reliably observed. In quantum field
theory, the appearance of tachyonic degrees of freedom indicates vacuum
instability rather than a real existence of the faster-than-light particles.
However, recent controversial claims of the OPERA experiment about superluminal
neutrinos triggered a renewed interest in superluminal particles. Driven by a
striking analogy of the old Frenkel-Kontorova model of a dislocation dynamics
to the theory of relativity, we conjecture in this note a remarkable
possibility of existence of the fourth type of particles, elvisebrions, which
can be superluminal. The characteristic feature of elvisebrions, distinguishing
them from tachyons, is that they are outside the realm of special relativity
and their energy remains finite (or may even turn to zero) when the elvisebrion
velocity approaches the light velocity.
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