Breaking the Light Barrier

'We have broken speed of light'

This has always been a pet peeve of mine. The theory of General Relativity does not say that nothing can travel faster than light. That is an implication of the theory - and apparently one that Einstein also believed, but this apparent breakthrough - whether it is real or not - doesn't destroy General Relativity. E=mc2 means that nothing with any mass can travel faster than light.

If photons are measured as moving faster than the speed of light (and the reading is accurate) then one of two things is happening. Either space is being bent in a way that brings the two points closer together - hence no change in the speed of a light photon, or a mechanism has been developed to allow a photon (something without mass) to travel faster than the ordinary speed of a photon. I do not see this as breaking General Relativity no matter what the pundits say. This is how science gets dumbed down - an abstraction become a cliche and people test new phenomenon against the cliche, not the real theory.

The implication may be that if we can accelerate light then we can accelerate something with mass. These are two different creatures altogether though, so don't jump to that conclusion. General Relativity still works for things with mass. Changing the energy in a system to accelerate something without mass does not destroy GR.

I still think that it will one day be possible to move things "faster than the speed of light", but it can only be done by manipulating space - curving it a la science fiction - which again with not violate GR since the object will still not be able to travel faster than what E=mc2 dictates. GR sets the limit on how an object with mass can travel and how its frame of reference is modified depending on its speed (hence the relativity part). GR does not limit how fast something without mass can travel or prevent something with mass from traveling between points faster than a photon. In the latter case however, space has to be manipulated since GR is accurate and will not be violated.