A new study provides some theoretical underpinnings for warp drives, suggesting that ultra-fast propulsion technology may not be eluding humanity forever.
Science fiction fans — especially “Star Trek” fans — are familiar with warp drives. These virtual engines manipulate the fabric of space-time itself, compressing matter in front of the spaceship and expanding it behind it. This creates a “warp bubble” that allows the craft to travel at incredible speeds – in some scenarios, several times faster than the speed of light.
In 1994, Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre published a book Pioneering paper Which shows how a realistic warp drive could work. However, this exciting development came with a big caveat: the proposed “Alcubierre engine” would require negative energy, an exotic matter that may or may not exist (or perhaps harness dark energy, the mysterious force that appears to be causing the accelerating expansion of the universe).
Related: Warp Drive and Star Trek: The Physics of Future Space Travel
Alcubierre published his idea of classical and quantum gravity. now, New paper In the same magazine he points out that warp drive might not require alien negative energy after all.
“This study changes the conversation about warp drives,” Jared Fox, lead author of the study from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the Applied Physics Research Center, said in a statement. “By demonstrating a first-of-its-kind model, we’ve shown that warp drives may not be just science fiction.”
The team’s model uses “a cutting-edge combination of traditional and new gravity techniques to create a warping bubble that can transport objects at high speeds within the limits of known physics,” according to the statement.
Perhaps understanding this model is beyond most of us; The research summary says, for example, that the solution “involves combining a stable material shell with a displacement vector distribution that closely matches well-known torsion drive solutions such as the Alcubierre metric.”
The proposed engine could not achieve faster-than-light speed, although it might come close; “High speeds but under light,” the statement states.
This is one sample study, so don’t get too excited. Even if other research teams confirm that the math in the new study is correct, we are still a long way from being able to build an actual convolution engine.
Fox and his team acknowledge this, stressing that their work could ultimately become a stepping stone on the long road toward efficient interstellar flight.
“Although we are not yet ready for interstellar travel, this research heralds a new era of possibilities,” Gianni Martier, CEO of Applied Physics, said in the same statement. “We continue to make steady progress as humanity enters the Age of Warp.”
The team’s study was published online on April 29. You can find it here (Although everything except the summary is behind a paywall.)
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