Tachyons (a Greek word meaning swift) are hypothetical particles which travel with a velocity greater than the speed of light in vacuum (or superluminal velocity) and represent the instability of the system. The first description of tachyons was given by German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld. But George Sudarshan, Olexa-Myron Bilaniuk and Gerald Feinberg (who originally coined the term) in the 1960s advanced a theoretical framework for their study. In terms of Einstein’s special relativity theory, these particles have space-like four momentum (momentum in four-dimensional coordinate system) and imaginary proper time. These particles generate Cherenkov radiation (the light equivalent of a sonic boom) when they cross the light barrier. However, according to special relativity such particles don’t exist in reality and even if they did they wouldn’t be able to transmit information or signals.
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