THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA: SUPERLUMINAL NEUTRINOS

This is a brief review on the experimental measurements muon neutrino velocities from the OPERA, Permilab and MINOS experiments and that of the (anti)-electron neutrino velocities from the supernova SN1987A, and consequently on the theoretical attempts to attribute the data as signals for superluminality of neutrinos. Different scenarios on how to understand and treat the background fields in the effective field theory frameworks are pointed out. Challenges on interpreting the OPERA result as a signal of neutrino superluminality are briefly reviewed and discussed. It is also pointed out that a covariant picture of Lorentz violation can avoid the refutation on the OPERA experiment.