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Related papers: Fundamental limitations on "warp drive" spacetimes

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We will apply the quantum inequality type restrictions to Alcubierre's warp drive metric on a scale in which a local region of spacetime can be considered ``flat''. These are inequalities that restrict the magnitude and extent of the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-10-30 Michael J. Pfenning , L. H. Ford

In this paper the problem of the quantum stability of the two-dimensional warp drive spacetime moving with an apparent faster than light velocity is considered. We regard as a maximum extension beyond the event horizon of that spacetime its…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-10-31 Pedro F. Gonzalez-Diaz

We extend the construction of Alcubierre-Nat\'{a}rio class of warp drives to an infinite class of spacetimes with similar properties. This is achieved by utilising the Martel-Poisson charts which closely resembles the Weak…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2025-01-30 Abhishek Chowdhury

The Alcubierre warp drive metric is a spacetime construction where a massive particle located inside a spacetime distortion, called warp bubble, travels at velocities arbitrarily higher than the velocity of light. This theoretically…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2021-02-24 Osvaldo L. Santos-Pereira , Everton M. C. Abreu , Marcelo B. Ribeiro

Alcubierre proposed in 1994 that the well known special relativistic limitation that particles cannot travel with velocities bigger than the light speed can be bypassed when such trips are considered globally within specific general…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-01-31 Osvaldo L. Santos-Pereira , Everton M. C. Abreu , Marcelo B. Ribeiro

It is commonly accepted that superluminal travel may be used to facilitate time travel. This is a purely special-relativistic argument, using the fact that for observers in two frames of reference, separated by a spacelike interval, the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-09-18 Barak Shoshany , Ben Snodgrass

Warp drives are very interesting configurations in General Relativity: At least theoretically, they provide a way to travel at superluminal speeds, albeit at the cost of requiring exotic matter to exist as solutions of Einstein's equations.…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2014-11-18 Stefano Finazzi , Stefano Liberati , Carlos Barceló

We study the generalizations of the original Alcubierre warp drive metric to the case of curved spacetime background. We find that the presence of a horizon is essential when one moves from spherical coordinates to Cartesian coordinates in…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-12-25 Remo Garattini , Kirill Zatrimaylov

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…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2009-10-31 Robert J Low

In 1990 Alcubierre, within the General Relativity model for space-time, proposed a scenario for `warp drive' faster than light travel, in which objects would achieve such speeds by actually being stationary within a bubble of space which…

General Physics · Physics 2007-07-24 Reginald T. Cahill

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…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2010-04-06 Miguel Alcubierre

Over the last decade, there has been a respectable level of scientific interest regarding the concept of a warp drive. This is a hypothetical propulsion device that could theoretically circumvent the traditional limitations of special…

Popular Physics · Physics 2008-07-15 Richard K Obousy , Gerald Cleaver

Presented are toy-models for sub-luminal and super-luminal warp-drives in 3+1 dimensions. The models are constructed in a chimeric manner - as different bulk space-times separated by thin membranes. The membranes contain perfect-fluid-like…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2024-05-29 Greg Huey

In this paper we study the so called "warp drive" spacetimes within the $U_{4}$ Riemann-Cartan manifolds of Einstein-Cartan theory. Specifically, the role that spin may play with respect to energy condition violation is considered. It turns…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2018-10-09 Andrew DeBenedictis , Sasa Ilijic

Recent solutions to the Einstein Field Equations involving negative energy densities, i.e., matter violating the weak-energy-condition, have been obtained, namely traversable wormholes, the Alcubierre warp drive and the Krasnikov tube.…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2022-09-21 Francisco Lobo , Paulo Crawford

We conduct a detailed analysis of Nat'{a}rio's ``zero-expansion'' warp drive spacetime, focusing on scalar curvature invariants within the 3+1 formalism. This paper has four primary objectives: First, we establish the Petrov type…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2025-12-24 José Rodal

The question of whether it is possible or not to surpass the speed of light is already centennial. The special theory of relativity took the existence of a speed limit as a principle, the light postulate, which has proven to be enormously…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2010-01-29 Carlos Barceló , Stefano Finazzi , Stefano Liberati

We critically examine proposals for the so-called warp-drive spacetimes and classify these models based on their various restrictions within the framework of General Relativity. We then provide a summary of general formalism for each class,…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-02-19 Hamed Barzegar , Thomas Buchert , Quentin Vigneron

The ``warp drive'' metric recently presented by Alcubierre has the problem that an observer at the center of the warp bubble is causally separated from the outer edge of the bubble wall. Hence such an observer can neither create a warp…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2016-08-24 Allen E. Everett , Thomas A. Roman

The Alcubierre warp drive metric is a spacetime geometry featuring a spacetime distortion, called warp bubble, where a massive particle inside it acquires global superluminal velocities, or warp speeds. This work presents solutions of the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2021-02-10 Osvaldo L. Santos-Pereira , Everton M. C. Abreu , Marcelo B. Ribeiro