English

Warp Drive Aerodynamics

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2022-09-14 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory Quantum Physics

Abstract

In this work we analyse the potential for a warp drive spacetime to develop instabilities due to the presence of quantum matter. Particularly, we look for points of infinite blueshift (which are analogous to points of a black hole inner horizon, known for its semiclassical instability), and categorise them through the behaviour of geodesics in their vicinity. We find that warp-drive bubbles in dimension 2+1 or higher are in fact likely to be stable, as they generally contain only isolated points where divergences are approached, leading to a finite limit for the overall accumulation of destabilising energy. Furthermore, any semiclassical instabilities in the warp drive due to energy-density buildups can be further diminished with particular, more ``aerodynamic" shapes and trajectories for the drive.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2207.06458,
  title  = {Warp Drive Aerodynamics},
  author = {Carlos Barceló and Valentin Boyanov and Luis J. Garay and Eduardo Martín-Martínez and Jose M. Sánchez Velázquez},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.06458},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

9 pages, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-25T00:53:37.871Z