Background

In 1979 in my research darkroom at RIT I originally saw interesting and unusual tracks on both Kodalith Type III Ortho film and NTB3 nuclear track emulsion. The tracks showed up in a very simple experiment consisting of exposing the film to a brief flash of light, putting my hand on the film for several minutes and then developing it in a 'lith' developer with no agitation. (It turned out later that exposure to the hand was unnecessary and only complicated the presentation).

Thick black tracks showed up on the film, visible easily on enlargements of the sheet film. I had no idea what the tracks were and none of my advisors, professors or outside contacts had any idea either.

At that time I didn't know very much about nuclear tracks, but I learned as much as I could. There were three main characteristics of the tracks that set them apart from the well-known nuclear track studies I researched. My tracks were very long (up to 69mm+), smooth (as opposed to bumpy with delta rays, i.e. the 'hairy rope'), and they curved smoothly (which usual charged particle tracks don't do in nuclear emulsions) in multiple directions.

I made a very speculative case early on, based on these characteristics, that these were particle tracks created by faster-than-light particles. My professors thought I was nuts.

Of course I was going pretty far out on a limb with this speculation. It didn't help that I was putting my hands on the emulsion for the experiment. There were just too many unanswered questions, too much speculation, and at the end of the day, too little interest in the tracks I had detected.

I got interested in computers and ended up being fortunate enough to work with some of the greatest legends in high-performance computing at Cray Research where I did work in graphics and virtual reality. Later on I helped to start up several companies in media, entertainment and 3D display systems.

Over the years though I couldn't shake the idea that I had truly discovered somthing new and important. I continued to keep abreast of research in physics so that I could learn if anyone else found these particle tracks.

In the mid-90's, a scientist I was in contact with suggested that I look at the work of Leonid Urutskoev. I found it of interest, but, at the time, was not able to see any concrete connection with my work.

Finally in 2012 I decided to return to the work in earnest.

I started by analyzing all of the data I had generated up to that point and trying to find out if there was a way to fit this into any kind of realistic physical model that made some kind of sense.

As soon as I spent some time examining the tracks under microscopes, I realized that my tracks shared many characteristics with the Urutskoev tracks. In addition to the Urutskoev particle tracks, I was able to find several other studies where tracks corresponded in some way with my tracks.

In 2013 my paper, Possible detection of tachyon monopoles in photographic emulsions was published in Engineering Physics. This was a rundown of all observations till then of these particle tracks, comparisons with other unusual particle tracks, and analysis of energy deposition and particle curvature in emulsions.

Starting in 2014, I went back into the laboratory to see if it was possible to answer the key questions about the nature of these particles by applying electric and magnetic fields during exposure and observing the behavior. Many new types of tracks have been detected and new observations about the experiments have been made. This website will serve as a focal point for ideas, opinions and discussion in this area.