UC Berkeley

This paper reports improvements and new results for a well developed theory of tachyons (faster-than-light particles) and follows the suggestion that neutrinos — especially the low energy neutrinos in the Cosmic Neutrino Background — may be tachyons. Starting with an application of the Thomas–Fermi method for studying a mass of particles obeying the Pauli exclusion principle, we find the following (and unusual) equations of state: p∼n1∕2∼ρ1∕3, where n is the particle number density, ρ is the energy density and p is the pressure. We then use these relations in the FLRW model for the evolution of the universe, focusing on the dominant role of the tachyon pressure. The result is a simple formula for the scale factor a(t); and this is found to provide an excellent fit to the famous observational data plotting “Luminosity distance” versus redshift from Type Ia supernovae. There are no free parameters in this theory; and the major uncertainty is an estimate of the tachyon mass at 0.1eV/c2. With successful quantitative explanations for both Dark Energy and Dark Matter, this tachyon-neutrino theory is presented as a strong alternative to the currently popular ΛCDM theory.