Tachyonic neutrinos and the neutrino masses

With a recent claim of superluminal neutrinos shown to be in error, 2012 may not be a propitious time to consider the evidence that one or more neutrinos may indeed be tachyons. Nevertheless, there are a growing number of observations that continue to suggest this possibility – albeit with an mν2<0 having a much smaller magnitude than was implied by the original OPERA claim. One recently published non-standard analysis of SN 1987A neutrinos supports a tachyonic mass eigenstate, and here we show how it leads to 3 + 3 mirror neutrino model having an unconventional mass hierarchy. The model incorporates one superluminal active–sterile neutrino pair, and it is testable in numerous ways, including making a surprising prediction about an unpublished aspect of the SN 1987A neutrinos. Additional supporting evidence involving earlier analyses of cosmic rays is summarized to add credence to the tachyonic neutrino hypothesis.