English

Speed Limits in General Relativity

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2009-10-31 v1

Abstract

Some standard results on the initial value problem of general relativity in matter are reviewed. These results are applied first to show that in a well defined sense, finite perturbations in the gravitational field travel no faster than light, and second to show that it is impossible to construct a warp drive as considered by Alcubierre (1994) in the absence of exotic matter.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9812067,
  title  = {Speed Limits in General Relativity},
  author = {Robert J Low},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9812067},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

7 pages; AMS-LaTeX; accepted for publication by Classical and Quantum Gravity