The Alcubierre Warp Drive!

I did a search on these forums and no results were found.

Here goes.

An idea for achieving faster-than-light travel suggested by the Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994.1 It starts from the notion, implicit in Einstein's general theory of relativity, that matter causes the surface of spacetime around it to curve. Alcubierre was interested in the possibility of whether Star Trek's fictional "warp drive" could ever be realized. This led him to search for a valid mathematical description of the gravitational field that would allow a kind of spacetime warp to serve as a means of superluminal propulsion. Alcubierre concluded that a warp drive would be feasible if matter could be arranged so as to expand the spacetime behind a starship (thus pushing the departure point many light-years back) and contract the spacetime in front (bringing the destination closer), while leaving the starship itself in a locally flat region of spacetime bounded by a "warp bubble" that lay between the two distortions. The ship would then surf along in its bubble at an arbitrarily high velocity, pushed forward by the expansion of space at its rear and the contraction of space in front. It could travel faster than light without breaking any physical law because, with respect to the spacetime in its warp bubble, it would be at rest. Also, being locally stationary, the starship and its crew would be immune from any devastatingly high accelerations and decelerations (obviating the need for "inertial dampers"), and from relativistic effects such as time dilation (since the passage of time inside the warp bubble would be the same as that outside).


Could such a warp drive be built? It would require, as Alcubierre pointed out, the manipulation of matter with a negative energy density. Such matter, known as exotic matter, is the same kind of peculiar stuff apparently needed to maintain stable wormholes – another proposed means of circumventing the light barrier. Quantum mechanics allows the existence of regions of negative energy density under special circumstances, such as in the Casimir effect.

Further analysis of Alubierre's warp drive concept by Chris Van Den Broeck of the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium,2 has perhaps brought the construction of the starship Enterprise a little closer. Van Den Broeck's calculations put the amount of energy required much lower than that quoted in Alcubierre's paper. But this is not to say we are on the verge of warp capability. As Van Den Broeck concludes: "The first warp drive is still a long way off but maybe it has now become slightly less improbable."

mist.npl.washington.edu...

reply to post by Itop1


While I do think that Warp drive or Hyper Space can happen we lack the ability to make it happen at this time.... However, I think Science it Narrow Minded Laws or theories can and will always be broken, nothing is guaranteed...

Good Find though.

reply to post by Itop1



Right now it is all in the conjecture stage (at least publically). We currently lack the understanding on how to actually build an engine that could achieve this effect, let alone the energy source. But Dr. Alcubierre's warp drive has received a good deal of attention and seems somewhat practical, if the aforementioned hurtles can be overcame.

Better forget 'warp drive'...

"The annihilating effects of space travel"
www.physorg.com...

"Scientists warn that a real-life Star Trek warp drive would be killer"
blastr.com...

I'll stick with Extended Heim Theory's 'hyperspace' drive. I have not seen that it would destroy destination star systems, on a ship's arrival. It proposes to reduce a ship's mass (perhaps to zero), and thus enter hyperspace for a f-t-l voyage.