Quantum effects in the Alcubierre warp drive spacetime
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2010-04-06 v1
Abstract
The expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of a free conformally invariant scalar field is computed in a two-dimensional reduction of the Alcubierre ``warp drive'' spacetime. The stress-energy is found to diverge if the apparent velocity of the spaceship exceeds the speed of light. If such behavior occurs in four dimensions, then it appears implausible that ``warp drive'' behavior in a spacetime could be engineered, even by an arbitrarily advanced civilization.
Cite
@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9707024,
title = {Quantum effects in the Alcubierre warp drive spacetime},
author = {William A. Hiscock},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9707024},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
9 pages, ReVTeX