1. EXPERIMENT DISPROVES THE SPECIAL RELATIVITY THEORY

Time-of-flight experiment [7], [8] with high-energy particles, which was performed in 1976 on synchrocyclotron of the Nuclear problems laboratory of the Joint institute for nuclear research (JINR), proves that high-energy particles move at superlight speeds.

In article [7] a short description of the experiment is given. More detailed description the experiment [7] is given in [8].

1.1. Description of equipment used in the experiment

Fig. 1.1 contains simplified functional diagram of equipment, which was used in this experiment, Fig. 1.2 shows time diagrams clarifying the equipment operation.

1 - analysing magnet; 2, 3 - scintillators; 4, 5 - photomultipliers; 6 - delay line; 7 - “time - pulse height” converter; 8 - multichannel pulse-height analyser

Equipment used in this experiment consists of an analysing magnet 1, scintillators 2 and 3, photomultipliers 4 and 5, delay line 6, converter 7 “time - pulse height ”, multichannel pulse height analyser 8.

Particles, which speed is measured by means of the equipment, pass sequentially through analysing magnet 1, scintillators 2 and 3, distance between which is equal to В. In the moment of any charged particle passing through scintillators 2 or 3 a light scintillation appears in each scintillator. Photomultipliers 4 and 5 convert light scintillations appearing in scintillators 2 and 3 into electric pulses.

Scintillation in the scintillator 2 is converted by photomultiplier 4 into electric pulse v₁ (refer Fig. 1.2), which is sent to an input of delay line 6. Electric pulses v₂ delayed for a time interval t_delay with respect to electric pulse v₁ from the delay line 6 output are sent on the first (starting) input of "time - pulse height" converter 7. Scintillation in the scintillator 3 is converted by a photomultiplier 5 into electric pulse v₃, which is sent to the second (stopping) input of "time - pulse height" converter 7.

At time moment t₂ of coming the electric pulse v₂ to the first input of "time - pulse height" converter 7 it begins generating the electric pulse v₄ with linearly increasing leading edge (refer Fig. 1.2).

Fig. 1.2. Time diagrams clarifying the equipment operation.

At time moment

t₃ = t₁+ B/u (1.1)

of coming the electric pulse v₃ to the second input of time-pulse height converter 7 it terminates generation of the leading edge of electric pulse v₄ and forms a short trailing edge of the electric pulse v₄. If a distance between scintillators 2 and 3 increases up to a value of (B + a), the trailing edge of pulse v₄ is generated at the moment t₄ (see Fig. 1.2).

So, each particle, which passes through scintillators 2 and 3, generates at the output of time-pulse height converter 7 an electric pulse v₄, which amplitude V_m is determined by the expression

V_m=k Dt, (1.2)

where k is a conversion factor for the time-pulse-height converter;

Dt = t₃ - t₂ = t₃ - t₁ - t_delay= B/u - t_delay ; (1.3)

 B is a length of measuring base (refer Fig. 1.1);  u is a particle speed;  t_delay is a delay time in the delay line.

A delay line was used in this experiment with the aim of ensuring time-pulse-height converter operation on the linear section of its characteristics, only for which the formula (1.2) is valid. Pulses v₄ from an output of the time-pulse-height converter 7 are sent to an input bus of pulse-height multichannel analyser 8. Each channel of the pulse-height multichannel analyser 8 contains (see Fig. 1.3): circuit 9 for comparison of pulse height with the lower threshold reference voltage, circuit 10 for comparison of pulse height with the upper threshold reference voltage, inverter 11, coincidence circuit 12 and totalizing pulse counter 13. The first inputs of the both comparison circuits 9 and 10 in each channel are connected to the input bus of the multichannel pulse height analyser 8.

9, 10 – comparison circuits; 11 – inverter; 12 – coincidence circuit; 13 – totalizing pulse counter, 14 - input bus of pulse height analyser; 15 - lower threshold reference voltage; 16 - upper threshold reference voltage.

The second input of each comparison circuit in a channel with number i is connected with direct current (DC) voltages of different magnitude: the second input of comparison circuit 9 is connected to DC reference voltage Vⁱ_lower, which serves as a lower threshold for comparison, and the second input of the comparison circuit 10 is connected to DC reference voltage

Vⁱ_upper = Vⁱ_lower + DV, (1.4)

which serves as an upper threshold for comparison, where DV is a discrete step of pulse height measuring. At that the lower threshold reference voltage in each next channel is equal to the upper threshold reference voltage in the previous channel, i. e.

Vⁱ_lower = V^i-1_upper . (1.5)

In all channels the value

DV=Vⁱ_upper - Vⁱ_lower (1.6)

has the same magnitude, thanks to what

Vⁱ_upper = i DV; Vⁱ_lower= (i - 1) DV. (1.7)

Diagram of each channel of pulse height analyser, which is shown in Fig. 1.3, provides passage of pulses to an input of totalizing pulse counter 13 only in the channel, in which

Vⁱ_lower < V_m < Vⁱ_upper . (1.8) 

This means, that if V_m is a pulse height of electric pulse v₄ shown in Fig. 1.2, than the pulse v₄ will come to an input of a totalizing counter 13 in a channel, which has a number

n = { V_m/DV } + 1, (1.9)

where {N} is an integer part of number N (for example, if V_m=9.3DV, than pulse v₄ will come to an input of a totalizing pulse counter in the channel having number 10). To inputs of totalizing counters of all other channels the pulse with such pulse height will not come.

If not one, but 1000 particles will fly through scintillators 2 and 3 and if for all these particles an integer part of the number V_m/ DV will be the same, than pulses v₄ generated by all these particles will be sent to a totalizing counter of one channel. This will be possible, if speeds of all these particles will be the same.

But actually the particles passing through scintillators 2 and 3 have different speeds. That is why pulses v₄ from the time-pulse height converter 7 output will have different pulse heights, and they will be sent to totalizing pulse counters of analyser 8 various channels.

So, each particle flying through scintillators 2 and 3 generates at the output of the time-pulse height converter 7 one pulse v₄ with pulse height of V_m, which is sent to an input of the totalizing pulse counter of a channel, which number is determined by equation (1.9).

If before the experiment beginning you will set all totalizing pulse counters to zero and after passing sufficiently great quantity of particles through scintillators 2 and 3 you will try to read numbers, which will be written in totalizing pulse counters of all channels, you will obtain time of flight distributions (spectrums) shown in [7], [8] and further in Fig. 1.4, Fig. 1.5, Fig. 1.6 and Fig. 1.7.

Substituting equation (1.2) into equation (1.9), we have

n = { ( k Dt )/DV } + 1 . (1.10)

Now let us introduce into consideration the chronometric (time) equivalent of one channel of the time-pulse height analyser

DT = DV/k . (1.11)

where DV is a discrete step of pulse height measuring; k is conversion factor of time-pulse height converter. Then equation (1.10) takes the form

n = { Dt/DT } + 1 . (1.12)

From equation (1.12) we can find

Dt = (n - 1) DT . (1.13)

If we know DT, equation (1.13) allows determining physical quantity Dt with an accuracy of  ± 0,5 Dt using spectrums from [8].

Substituting equation (1.3) into equation (1.13), we have the equation

u = B/[ (n - 1) DT + t_delay ], (1.14)

which allows calculating particle speed u using known magnitudes of values B, n, DT, t_delay.

It is difficult to measure the values B and t_delay with high accuracy. If we have a possibility to measure with high accuracy the change of measuring base B, we can calculate a particle speed using an equation

u_j = ( B₂ - B₁ )/[ ( n_2j - n_1j ) DT], (1.15)

which can be obtained from equation (1.14).