# Does anything suggest the existence of Tachyons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2007, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-suggest-the-existence-of-tachyons/418219 "2007-09-06T06:51:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-suggest-the-existence-of-tachyons/418219/1 "2007-09-06T06:51:00Z")
When I’ve seen tachyon’s mentioned, I think they’ve always been concieved of as a sort of “toy particle” that some models could be construed as _allowing_ for but that no empirical evidence suggests the existence of. What I’m asking is, are there theoretical considerations (any theory/model/whatever that is taken seriously by someone other physicists take seriously) which go so far as to imply that tachyons do exist? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-suggest-the-existence-of-tachyons/418219/2 "2007-09-06T16:27:59Z")
Really, the only reason anyone thinks that tachyons might exist is that nobody’s come up with any reason why they wouldn’t. But then, even if they do exist, all of the known self-consistent theories which allow for them also predict that they’d be absolutely utterly incapable of interacting with tardyons in any way. So it doesn’t really matter whether they exist at all, and depending on one’s philosophy of physics, one might even say that they don’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-suggest-the-existence-of-tachyons/418219/3 "2007-09-06T16:35:03Z")
They’re here and they’re for sale. [http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id=mg18725072.100](http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id=mg18725072.100) > [@](#): > > The School of Awakening in Chulmleigh, Devon, UK, informs us promisingly on its website that: “In quantum physics, the energy that fills the cosmos is called zero-point energy.” It then launches into hitherto untrodden realms of knowledge with its description of the amazing properties of tachyons, subatomic particles that until now have been regarded as strictly hypothetical. > > “Like zero-point energy, tachyon moves faster than the speed of light and is omnipresent…At the point of the speed of light, tachyon interacts with the subtle organizing energy fields (SOEFs). Becoming energized, the SOEFs convert tachyon energy into whatever frequencies are needed to bring balance to the being…SOEFs are the ‘cosmic glue’ that holds all forms together. They are the matrix upon which physical and subtle bodies are formed. Tachyon, pure life-force energy, is converted by the SOEFs into the exact frequencies needed to maintain and restore perfect balance to a life form.” ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anything-suggest-the-existence-of-tachyons/418219/4 "2007-09-06T16:37:46Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] But then, even if they do exist, all of the known self-consistent theories which allow for them also predict that they’d be absolutely utterly incapable of interacting with tardyons in any way. [/QUOTE] This is so much like the Literary History arguments that the Works of Homer were actually written by an entirely different guy named Homer. Tris