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The Alcubierre Warp-Drive

This classic 1994 publication by Dr. Miguel Alcubierre has become generally recognized as the keystone in warp-drive theory within classical Einsteinian relativity. While Alcubierre's theory requires the use of undiscovered "exotic-matter", recent speculation has suggested that UFT, Torsion, and String Theory may allow this device to become a practical reality within the realm of practical engineering design.

It is shown how, within the framework of general relativity and without the introduction of wormholes, it is possible to modify a spacetime in a way that allows a spaceship to travel with an arbitrarily large speed. By a purely local expansion of spacetime behind the spaceship and an opposite contraction in front of it, motion faster than the speed of light as seen by observers outside the disturbed region is possible. The resulting distortion is reminiscent of the "warp drive" of science fiction However, just as it happens with wormholes, exotic matter will be needed in order to generate a distortion of spacetime like the one discussed here.

PDF Link: The Alcubierre Warp Drive Publication
File Size: 140kb (PDF 7)


Comments (4)

Quincy Hornsby
Said this on 12-17-2005 At 02:34 pm
Any time you speak of the Alcubierre Warp Metric you should also link to the Van Den Broeck modification which makes it much more practical and eliminates many objections of the critics. 1) The new bubble is created around a space ship at sublight speeds and then is shrunk down to microscopic size (including the spaceship! How's that for a new take on a fantastic voyage). According to critics quantum fluctuations would destroy the bubble after a period of time.
2) the size of the new bubble is smaller than a proton when surpassing light speed and is unsteerable and opaque to light meaning you can't control it once it exceeds the speed of light and you can't see out of it.

This shouldn't be a problem though if one were to do a series of jumps.

here's the paper:
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc/9905084
and a layman's explanation:
http://www.analogsf.com/0002/av0002.html
Said this on 12-23-2005 At 01:16 pm
THANK YOU
Chris McNabb
Said this on 6-2-2007 At 05:57 pm
I believe, the space time distortion you are looking for is more achievable if we take Hutchinson's Effect into consideration. And gravity is a result of electrical properties of molecular or even sub atomic charges, the very reason that nonmagnetic materials begin to levitate. It creates a distortion in the gravitational attractions between the objects, they repell each other insted of attracting. Ofcourse the earth is much larger so the object moves away.
e j dunphy
Said this on 1-15-2008 At 11:38 am
The existence of dark energy the "fuel" for warp drive ie creation of Riemann (mathematical space) Rosen-Einstein Bridge (physicalspace)was discovered in 1997,

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