Warp Travel Or Hyperspace Travel?

TRAVELLING FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT HOW SCIENCE FICTION BECAME A NASA PROJECT A big problem with the Alcubierre drive is it needs a whole lot of energy to bend space-time.

NASA scientist, Harold “Sonny” White changed the design of the drive so that it requires a lot less energy. The Alcubierre drive used to require energy equal to that produced by Jupiter’s mass. Now, the new design requires about 1,600 pounds or less than a Toyota Prius worth of energy! If the new Alcubierre drive works in real life, then White says we could reach Alpha Centauri Bb in a few weeks. Could there be life on other planets? What do aliens look like and are they friendly to people on Earth? To travel to far away planets such as Alpha Centauri Bb, we need to travel faster than the speed of light. Alpha Centauri Bb is the planet closest to Earth and outside of our solar system. It is about 4 light years away. If we could travel as fast as the speed of light, then we would reach this planet in about four years. If we could travel faster than light, we could visit our neighbors near and far! Fun facts: A light year is how far light travels in one year. This is about 10 trillion kilometers. 1 trillion has 12 zeros! At this stage, NASA does not think faster than light travel is scientifically possible. The ideas of Alcubierre and White are mostly mathematical. It will take many years to apply these ideas. An actual warp drive require a 100 years of work! Still, White is beginning to test the ideas on a little scale at NASA. This is one small step toward deep space travel.

WHY TRAVELLING FASTER THAN LIGHT IS IMPORTANT EINSTEIN’S IDEAS

Star Wars KEY PEOPLE ALBERT EINSTEIN GREATEST PHYSICIST EVER MIGUEL ALCUBIERRE THEORETICAL PHYSICIST HAROLD “SONNY” WHITE NASA SCIENTIST ALCUBIERRE’S IDEAS Miguel Alcubierre says we can build a special warp bubble around a spaceship that will make the ship look like it is moving faster than light speed. The Alcubierre warp bubble bends space-time close to the ship. If you are on the inside of the bubble, you will not see any change. Outside the bubble, space- time shrinks in the front and space-time expands in the back.

So the Alcubierre drive does not propel the ship superfast, like in the movies. Instead, this drive bends or warps space-time around the ship. This type of drive makes it seem like we are breaking the light barrier, but we are not. Einstein’s ideas still work. In the movies, when the pilot of a spaceship wants it to go really fast, the pilot puts the ship in a high gear called a warp drive or hyper-drive. But we know that no ship can actually speed up to light speed. If it did go that fast, then strange things would happen as Einstein said.

Albert Einstein said that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light! As a rocket speeds up, three things will change: Time slows down on the rocket ship. Distance will get shorter on the rocket ship. The rocket’s mass (the amount of matter in it) will increase. As the rocket’s speed reaches the speed of light, things get even stranger: Time will stop. The rocket will become so tiny you cannot see it. The rocket’s mass will increase to infinity. No human has ever seen these strange things. Therefore, Einstein said that nothing can break the light barrier.

Hyperdrive

The ability to perform “faster than light” travel is another staple of sci-fi. In Star Wars, this tech is given the name “hyperdrive”. According to the Star Wars canon, this is performed by sending “hypermatter” particles to hurl the vessel into “hyperspace”, while preserving the ship’s mass/energy profile. This tech requires the vessel to travel along a plotted course and translate between normal space and “hyperspace”.

As Einstein tells us traveling faster than light is not possible as mass and energy are directly related. As you approach the speed of light, your mass will increase accordingly. A possible solution to the mass, energy and gas-missile issues might be to take space “with” you rather than try to “smash” through it.

Gerard Cleaver, Professor of Physics at Baylor University does hint at a possibility to overcome this. General relativity states that objects cannot travel faster than light as measured in local surrounding space. Cleaver states that the theory “places no limits on the speeds at which space itself expands or contracts”. This could be a loophole that we could exploit to get around general relativity constants. This technology would mean that the ship would contract space-time in front of it and re-expand it behind. A bit like the wake of a ship, but with the fabric of space rather than fluids.

Cleaver expands on this “Objects inside the warp bubble would be at rest with regard to the warp bubble but would also be moving faster than the speed of light with regard to the surrounding space outside the bubble.” Pretty cool.

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Faster than Light Travel Part 1: The Mathematical Existence and Potential Application of Warp Drives

Faster than light travel is one of the most ambitious dreams embodied in modern science fiction literature. Our current line of technological development cannot hope to travel to other star systems for at least several generations. Assuming a universal limit of the speed of light, it would take at least 4.37 years for an astronaut to travel to Alpha Centauri, our closest non-solar star. Even with future engineering developments, it will be impossible for humanity to ever explore the universe or even the galaxy with this speed limit.

In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre published a paper that mathematically modelled an effect consistent with general relativity that could move an object (i.e. a spaceship) at an arbitrary speed unbounded by the speed of light. The spaceship would be propelled forward by contracting the spacetime ahead of it and expanding the spacetime behind it. The intermediary ground between the contraction and expansion would create a ‘warp bubble’ as shown in the original figure created by Alcubierre:

Figure 1. The expansion of spacetime by a warp drive traveling in the positive-x direction, where ρ is a projection of the y and z-axes onto one axis; ...

The most impressive component of this warp drive model is that the passage of time is identical for an observer and the traveler, meaning that no relativistic time dilation occurs in this mode of travel (Alcubierre 1994).

The issue with warp drives, however, is that the warp bubble requires a large source of negative energy and in fact violates all three energy conditions (Alcubierre 1994). Lobo and Visser concluded that these violations persist no matter what the travel speed is, squandering any hopes that slower drives might be able to use normal matter as fuel (Lobo et al. 2004). Pfenning and Ford calculated that in order to transport a single human, the negative energy of the warp bubble wall would not only need to be concentrated in a thickness comparable to the Planck length, but also be ten magnitudes more energetic than the total mass of the visible universe (Pfenning et al. 1997). In any practical sense, the original Alcubierre warp drive is impossible to create.

More recent work by Broeck has shown that the energy requirements of the drive can be significantly reduced by altering the geometry of the warp bubble. Broeck’s example resulted in an energy with the equivalent mass of several suns – still nothing feasible, but much more so than ten billion visible universes (Broeck 1999).  

Further work by Natário on the motion of the bubble showed that the spacetime around the warp bubble does not necessarily need to be expanded and contracted. Instead, the motion can be viewed as sliding around the bubble around the rest of spacetime (Natário 2002). This generalized form of warp movement seems to have no reaction fueling it; in fact, Lobo and Visser determined that any form of this warp drive would be a “reaction-less drive” (Lobo et al. 2004).

A reactionless warp drive powered by a source of negative energy is certainly many generations away from its invention. Major functional components of this drive have yet to be discovered, and even then they are currently impossible to efficiently utilize. More discoveries about dark energy may lead to the creation of a field of spacetime in which all three energy conditions can be broken. Until then, humans will have to stick to rockets.

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SPACE TRAVEL

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SPACE DRIVES IN SCIENCE FICTION AND SCIENCE

Traveling at near or faster than the speed of light has always been an intriguing idea to scientists and dreamers.
Just that thought has been around ever since we realized how far everything actually is in space.
With current technology, it would take an unfathomable amount of time to reach the nearest star outside of our
solar system. For example, the Voyager I spacecraft which was launched in 1977 has traversed the furthest distance
from Earth, out of any manmade object. With recent technology, in the past 30 or 40 years, the Voyager I
represents the limit of how fast we can actually travel, moving at a pitiful .0006% of the speed of light.
This is a humbling fact, keeping in mind that Alpha Centauri (closest neighboring star) is just over four light
years away from us. So for those not familiar with this form of measurement, traveling at 100% of the speed of
light, or 1c, it would take over four years (from the static observer's perspective) for that spacecraft to get
there! Now if you think that is hard to grasp, then just hold on, because it's going to get even more mind
boggling.

The Problem

In pretty much all science fictional stories, the human race has figured out a way to solve the problem of
covering vast distances in much shorter periods of time. For example, in the book, The Forever War a 'Tachyon'
drive is used to transport soldiers and traverse around the universe at whopping speeds up to about .97c or 97%
the speed of light. This is a significant improvement from actual technology, but in fact still isn't fast
enough to get anywhere in a reasonably short period of time. This opens up the discussion of "faster than light"
travel. There are ideas that have been utilized in plenty of science fiction stories that are for the most part,
still science fiction. However, just because they aren't current reality, this hasn't stopped physicists in trying
to figure out ways to actually make sense of them.

Means of Travel - Examining the Warp Drive

The most infamous sci-fi drive is the Warp Drive from Star Trek, but some other ideas worth mentioning include
wormholes and some sort of hyperspace drive. The basic idea of a Warp drive is not too hard to comprehend.
Once aboard some sort of spacecraft, you create some sort of 'bubble' that surrounds your craft completely.
Once that is done, the real action can take place! To start your warp, in front of the bubble your drive will
be used to compress the fabric of space-time, while expanding it behind you. Once that is done, you can proceed
forward at a relatively slow speed along the compressed section. Once the drive is disengaged, space-time
returns to the way it was previously and your spacecraft can ride out the compressed part like a surfer on a
wave. Here's what warping space can be visually perceived as:

In order to gather and coalesce ideas in a productive manner, NASA decided to start a new project. In 1997
NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) Project was initiated. This essentially laid some decent
groundwork for what we can expect to accomplish in the generations to come. As the former head of this project,
here is Marc Millis with his outlook on space drives:

Fragility of the Human Body

So say we could get a space craft to travel at near light speeds, how would that feel? Well it would all depend
the rate of acceleration or change in velocity. The greatest acceleration that the human body could endure is
roughly 3 to 5 times Earth's accleration (referred to as a 'g'). If we want to endure more than that, we need to
employ a method that reduces the stresses done to the body. It is common with fighter pilots to use 'g suits'
to help with this. Current technology allows for sustained accelerations of up to 6 g's which is still not good
enough to combat conditions of space travel. In The Forver War, they loaded everyone into capsules which was a
decent method to solve this problem. In the story, the method of injecting certain drugs into the body, and
filling the capsule with special fluid was employed. The interesting thing is this might work! (but we'll leave
this one up to the medical experts)...

Traverse Through Black Holes?

Again, referencing The Forver War, because their Tachyon drive couldn't accelerate them beyond the speed of
light, an alternate and much faster method of travel had to be explored. So called 'collapsars,' which can be
thought of as what is commonly referred to as a black hole, were utilized. There are currently many scientists
researching the concept of a black hole with all of the strange phenomena that occur to objects near them.
Currently it is believed that once something has reached the 'event horizon' (or point of no return) that
something will be stretched, atom-by-atom, into an infinitely long string, similar to spaghetti. Bringing it
back to sci-fi, black holes are often thought of as being direct passages or links to distant locations, times,
or even other dimensions. These ideas sound unreasonable, but in fact might not be too far from the truth.
Due to a black hole's immense gravitational pull (so strong that light cannot even escape), there is no telling
what it is completely capable of. To help wrap your mind around these concepts here is a short clip from the
History Channel's The Universe:

Relativity & Time Dilation

Now when comparing science to science fiction, for different reasons, there are many technicalities that will be
overlooked, usually for sake of a story. The main technical and probably most interesting aspect that can be
easily overlooked is the concept of time dilation. The basic idea stems from Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
Time dilation refers to the concept that as an object is moving faster and faster approaching near the speed
of light, time actually slows down (from an outsider's frame of reference). A traveler aboard this hypothetical
spacecraft will feel time passing at a normal rate, but it would seem to the traveler that everything outside
of the spacecraft is moving much slower relative to them, hence the Theory of Relativity. This is a compelling
concept only explored by a few science fiction stories. If we possessed the ability to travel at near light
speed, yes it is true that we could get places much faster, but the more time spent at that incredible speed,
builds a greater and very noticeable gap between crew aboard the vessel and everyone else back home on Earth.
This concept is so interesting because it sounds like something straight out of science fiction, but in fact is
considered science and accepted by most if not all physicists. In a sense, time dilation can be viewed as a
method of time travel. If one would want to venture to the future, just catch the next vessel moving at .99c
and return home in 5 years. By then, approximately 7 times that would have passed on Earth putting you 30
years into the future! Still confused? Here is a quick and dirty explanation of time dilation with the Theory
of Relativity:

IN THE END

So in certain ways, the ideas that science fiction brings us is not too far from current science. In other
ways it clearly is. As long as the human race has the will and drive to aim for the stars, there's no reason
we won't eventually get there. All in good time...

Written by Shawn Wittick, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. 2012.

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Hyperdrive (FTL Warp Drive)

Traveling Faster Than the Speed of Light Could Be a Reality

By: David Russell Schilling | September 11th, 2013


Warp drive as we know it has always been a science fiction fantasy, until now. Scientist and Professor Miguel Alcubierre, National University of Mexico, a self-avowed science fiction fan, while listening to an episode of Star Trek in college, began to think about the idea of “warp drive” in the context of the Theory of Relativity. After a weekend of intense calculations, he discovered an equation that would allow a spaceship to travel faster than the speed of light without violating any of the principles of relativity.

Alcubierre published his equation in the “Classical and Quantum Gravity Journal,” explaining how a spaceship could travel across time and space and travel to the ends of the universe in days, weeks or months rather than decades, centuries or millennia.


Negative Energy Compresses Space

Like a modern day escalator, a spaceship would be pushed through space and time without accelerating and without moving away from its local environment. The space surrounding the ship would be stationary but the space behind it would expand and space in front of it contract, “bending space time” to bring the spaceship closer and closer to its destination.

To make space behind the spaceship expand, it must be filled up with “negative energy.” In short, if enough negative energy could be created, warp drive could occur. Steve Lamoreaux, Atomic Physicist at Yale University has spent the past 15 years proving that “negative energy” exists; if he is correct, the energy needed to make warp drive a reality exists.
Traveling Across The Universe In Seconds, Rather Than Centuries Or Millenia

NASA’s Advanced Propulsion Team is testing the same phenomena in its hopes that someday we will be able to truly explore the universe rather than see it from afar.

Will we ever achieve interstellar travel?

 (Yıldızlararası seyahat edebilecek miyiz?)

Düz uzay/zaman çizgilerini temsil eden uzay/zaman matriksi (kalıbı).

Uzay/zaman çizgileri  aracın ön tarafına doğru huni şeklinde bükülüyor.

Uzay/zaman çizgileri  aracın ön tarafına doğru huni şeklinde bükülürken arka tarafında şişirilen bir balon gibi uzay/zaman çizgileri şişiyor (genişliyor). Bu da warp sürüşünü mümkün kılıyor. Böylece araç arka tarafından negatif bir eğrilik(antigravity) ile öne doğru itilirken , ön  tarafında ise pozitif bir eğrilikten (gravity)  dolayı bir çekimsel olarak ileri doğru çekilmektedir. Uzayın kendisi aracımızı(uzay gemisi)  arkadan iterken  ön taraftanda çekmektedir.
 

aracımızın çevresinden merkeze doğru olan   yerçekimsel küre içinde meydana gelecek  ezilmeyi engellemek için negatif bir enerji alanı yaratarak çekimsel çökmeyi dengeliyoruz. Böylece aracın ön tarafında uzay daralırken arka tarafındada genişlemektedir. Tam ortada yer alan aracımızda genişleme ve daralmanın etkilerini dengeleyen bir negatif enerji bulutu ile kendisini sarmıştır.

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The ship will warp the space around it...

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Discovery.Ch.Sci.Fi.Science.01of25.How.to.Explore.the.Universe
 

Ep.1 How to Explore the Universe

Ep. 1) Dr Michio Kaku shows how we might one day explore the Universe like the crew of the Starship Enterprise. He visits Brookhaven National laboratory's atom smasher where particles are accelerated to near light speed. A loophole in Einstein's theory of relativity is revealed when Professor Miguel Alcubierre explains how Star Trek provided inspiration for his breakthrough equation showing how a spacecraft could travel at warp speed. Kaku demonstrates the mysterious properties of negative energy and looks at some ground breaking work by Professor Federico Capasso at Harvard University. Crossing the universe in the blink.

Exploring the universe on a ship that can boldly go where no man has gone before isn't just a sci fi dream. Dr Michio Kaku reveals how we really could one day build a warp drive and set out on our own star trek.

How to build a Warp Drive

WARP DRIVE • Completely Theoretical form of Faster than light travel but plausible and within the laws of physics.

 • Nothing can move faster than light however shortly after the big bang space itself expanded faster than light travels

• The drive would work by contracting the space in front of the craft and expanding the space behind it the ship would then ride this wave of space-time

• Because the ship itself is not moving but space is moving around the ship faster than light no acceleration or extreme tidal forces are felt by the crew

• This drive could theoretically reach the nearest stars in mere weeks however this faster than light travel may leave the door open to time travel to the future

• This technology would require a truly exotic fuel either dark matter that has properties of negative mass or by harnessing the “dark energy” that has been accelerating the expansion of the universe since the big bang.

THEORETICAL SOLUTIONS TO INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL

INTRODUCTION

Biology on planet earth is driven by the evolution and Adaptation of life forms to an environment in order to secure survival of the next generation. While the Human race has only been around on this planet for a tiny fraction of it’s entire history, we have continually grown into an apex species like none seen on this planet previously. All great inventions and innovations of the human mind have been in the pursuit of breaking bonds with our current surroundings in order to maximize survival. This insurance of survival for our Species lies in breaking the bonds of our solar system and making interstellar space travel achievable within the next 100 years.

The space in between stars are on the order of light years, which makes travel between them by current means nearly impossible. One light year is the distance light travels in one year, with a single photon moving at 186,282 mi/s, and the nearest star system 4.3 light years away Voyager 2 would take 500 years to arrive by conventional means. • Only by achieving a significant fraction of the speed of light will manned travel between the stars become attainable in a single human lifespan. However due to time dilation predicted by Einstein’s Theory of relativity the closer an object approaches to luminal speed the slower its clock moves relative to another slower object.

THEORETICAL INTERSTELLAR PROPULSION SYSTEMS

In order for interstellar travel to be possible new and exotic ways of travel must be proposed that are practical and efficient. Three possible interstellar propulsion systems are the • Fusion Drive • Solar Sail • Warp Drive All of which present their own advantages and disadvantages
 

WARP DRIVE • Completely Theoretical form of Faster than light travel but plausible and within the laws of physics. • Nothing can move faster than light however shortly after the big bang space itself expanded faster than light travels • The drive would work by contracting the space in front of the craft and expanding the space behind it the ship would then ride this wave of space-time • Because the ship itself is not moving but space is moving around the ship faster than light no acceleration or extreme tidal forces are felt by the crew • This drive could theoretically reach the nearest stars in mere weeks however this faster than light travel may leave the door open to time travel to the future • This technology would require a truly exotic fuel either dark matter that has properties of negative mass or by harnessing the “dark energy” that has been accelerating the expansion of the universe since the big bang.

Above: It is also known that the universe currently expands because space itself is expanding. Additionally, the rate in which galaxies move apart is accelerating. This is known as "Hubble's Law". It is hypothesized that one possible ultimate fate of the universe is that if space accelerates so quickly in the future, that all galaxies will move apart faster than the speed of light, which virtually entraps them in a 'prison'.

What does this mean?

Above: It means that Monsters, by the virtue of their 300+ IQs (possible because their craniums are so large, and must therefore contain an Einstein-like intellect), must have created a machine like the above, where they cause space in front of their UFO to contract, while expanding the space behind. This is done so using negative matter, which can cause negative gravity to occur at the back of the craft, while using normal gravity to contract space in front.

The Concept of Negative Energy in Physics Simplified for You

Negative energy is a mysterious concept in the world of physics that appears to be more suited to the pages of a science fiction novel than in real life. In this Buzzle post, we verify the plausibility of its existence and look at some implications of its existence.

 

Total Energy in the Universe

The gravitational potential energy which keeps two pieces of matter in contact with one another must be negative since it takes positive energy to pull them apart. Considering the universe to be approximately uniform, one can show that the total negative gravitational energy in it would exactly cancel out the total positive energy represented by matter. Hence the universe as a whole has zero total energy in it.

"God does not play dice!" - these were the words famously uttered by the great Albert Einstein in order to express his displeasure at the bizarre implications of the uncertainty principle. After all, he said, how could the world around us be so random that even with physics, it would be impossible to make any prediction about it with certainty? It baffled him to no extent!

The science of quantum mechanics has this inherent quality of confounding the common sense of even the most brightest ones among us, and the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is at the very center of all this confusion. Among the several befuddling concepts that have over the years arisen from the uncertainty principle, negative energy is one of them. But it isn't simply a physics trick. We must realize that just like all the other, seemingly impossible concepts and theories in quantum mechanics, it's as real as life itself. It goes a long way in showing that even Einstein could be wrong, and that God does in fact play dice all the time!

In the following sections, we shall explore what negative energy in quantum physics is. But before going any further, I must implore you to keep your mind open to new concepts and thoughts, because in the world of quantum mechanics, rigidity of thought and imagination, has absolutely no place.

Conception of Negative Energy and Dirac Sea

In 1928, British physicist Paul Dirac formulated an equation for describing the dynamics of electrons. This equation was very successful in predicting the spin as well as magnetic moment of an electron. However, it also put forth a rather peculiar proposition―an electron could have either positive or negative kinetic energy. Also, when Paul's exclusion principle was taken into consideration, the vision of an entire sea having an infinite number of electrons with negative kinetic energy could be conjured up.

This was the first time physics had indicated towards the existence of negative energy. But how could energy ever be negative. And if negative energy did exist, why don't we see or feel its presence? To explain his findings, Dirac stated that in nature, the quantum states of positive energy are exactly balanced out by the quantum states of negative energy. As such, the net effect remains zero, and so we are unable to see or feel the effects of negative energy in normal everyday conditions. However, he did propose that if an ideal vacuum could be created wherein all effects of positive energy were eliminated, then the presence of the Dirac sea and therefore of negative energy could be verified.

But the creation of an ideal vacuum seemed impossible at the time, and so the existence of negative energy could not be proven. This cast a large shadow of doubt on the very concept of negative energy. Many physicists even began questioning the likelihood of its existence, until Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir, through an innovative experiment, was able to show that it was in fact real and very much present.

The Discovery of Negative Energy: Casimir Effect

Though his equation predicted the existence of negative energy, Dirac was unable to experimentally verify this prediction. Thus, negative energy remained only a theory until in 1948, Hendrik Casimir proposed an experiment which could display the effects produced by negative energy.

Casimir argued that if the effects of gravity and electromagnetism were nullified, a nearly pure vacuum would be created within which, the effects of negative energy would manifest in an observable manner in the form of something known as the Casimir effect. The following shows how the Casimir effect could be observed experimentally.

Experimental setup

Two extremely thin and lightweight, flat metal plates are placed in vacuum. They are arranged parallel to one another and are kept at a very small distance apart. Typically, the distance between them needs to be as small as 10-6m for the Casimir effect to work.

Their light weight greatly reduces the effect of gravity and being within a vacuum, no other force can act on them. Lastly, both of these plates are earthed using wires connected to the ground in order to remove any charge upon them. Thus, the effects of electricity and magnetism too are nullified, and the two plates are now in an almost pure vacuum.

Observation

When the above setup is created, a very strange effect takes place. Without the presence of any energy or application of any external force, spontaneously the two parallel plates move closer, until the distance between them becomes zero and they touch each other.

Inference

The above observation is the result of the Casimir effect. According to Dirac, negative energy exists all around us, but its presence cannot be determined since it is balanced out by the positive energy present everywhere. The vacuum created in the above experiment is pure vacuum. All effects of external positive energy and force have been removed or nullified. Thus, negative energy is allowed to manifest freely and within the vacuum chamber, the hypothetical Dirac sea of negative energy is created. The following is a theoretical explanation of this.

According to the uncertainty principle, an area of nothingness (a vacuum), can be full of an infinite number of microscopic particles known as virtual particles. These particles pop in and out of existence, appearing and disappearing randomly. Together, they comprise the Dirac sea. Each of these particles has a wave associated with it, which can be imagined to be like the waves in a sea. These waves together apply pressure on the flat metal plates from all the sides.

Now, as there is only a small space present in between the metal plates, a limited number of particles having negative energy are able to manifest there. This causes a small pressure on the metal plates due to the associated wave of each particle to act from inside out.

Comparatively, a much larger number of particles with negative energy are able to manifest in the external space around the metal plates. Their associated waves together applies a much larger pressure in the outside-in direction, resulting in the two metal plates being pushed closer until they come in contact.

Thus, the Casimir effect shows that the difference in the energy densities between and around two uncharged metal plates causes them to attract towards each other. Since the entire system was originally in a state of zero energy and no positive energy was introduced into it, the energy expended in doing the work of moving the plates together must be negative. Thus, the Casimir effect proves the existence of negative energy density in a vacuum.

This Casimir effect was practically verified for the first time in an experiment similar to the one above, which was overseen by M.J. Sparnaay, and later again, in 1997, by Steve K. Lamoreaux, who paired a single plate with another one which was a section of a nearly precise sphere.

Applications of Negative Energy

Since its conception and experimental verification, the concept of negative energy has gone on to become an integral part of modern physics. The following are a few examples which highlight the importance of negative energy in the modern times.

Black Holes

In the year 1974, Stephen W. Hawking of the University of Cambridge made his prediction that a black hole, which has a gravity so strong that it doesn't allow even light to escape, will actually evaporate by emitting radiation. This phenomenon which later came to be known as Hawking radiation, seemed to contradict the laws of physics as the black hole had always been considered to be a one-way street. In order to explain this, Hawking stated that the production of positive energy in the form of radiation from the black hole, was accompanied by the flow of negative energy into it, thus leading to the conservation of energy.

When virtual particles pop up in the vicinity of the extreme space-time curvature near the edge of a black hole, i.e. the event horizon, one might move away from the black hole and one into it. If a particle having negative energy falls into the black hole, it will cause the black hole's mass to decrease. If this continues to happen for a long enough time duration, the black hole's mass would keep on reducing until it becomes zero and the black hole evaporates.

Above: The speed of light, as we know, is about 186000 miles per second, and is believed to be static. However, this is not true at the quantum level. According to Steven Hawking, in "A Brief History of Time", he wrote that the speed of light can travel faster than that amount at the quantum level, since space is of a "lower density" at times due to the quantum fluctuations.

I have been wondering: if the monsters are of extraterrestrial origins, and were said to have arrived in Shear only recently, then it must mean that they are an advanced civilisation capable of using warp drive.

This thread is a consideration of the lore involving how monsters use interstellar travel to travel to Shear: Quantum Foam!

Above: In the diagram above, it is known as vacuum as we know it is not strictly a vacuum. It is far from being empty space. If one zooms in very closely, at the planck scale, one can see "quantum foam", which are fluctuations in space itself with an extreme amount of energy.

Above: This energy of the vacuum is sometimes referred to as "zero-point energy" which is demonstrated in the Casimir effect, which causes energy to flow between two very closely placed plates, almost as though it is a passive form of energy.

However, this is not true at the quantum level. According to Steven Hawking, in "A Brief History of Time", he wrote that the speed of light can travel faster than that amount at the quantum level, since space is of a "lower density" at times due to the quantum fluctuations.

Above: At the quantum level, quantum foam can fold itself into many bizarre forms, such as in the case of wormholes, which allows light to travel inter-dimensionally, by "cutting space" short so that it has to travel less distance to reach another destination.

Wormholes

Another important concept where negative energy plays a vital role is the curvature of space-time, known as the wormhole. A wormhole is basically a hypothetical tunnel in space-time that connects one region in space to another. This could act as a cosmic shortcut which could be used to reach regions of the universe that are several light years away in only a matter of hours or days. However, the laws of physics state that a wormhole large enough to accommodate a spaceship would collapse under its own gravity so rapidly that even a beam of light wouldn't have time enough to traverse it. The concept of negative energy comes as a solution to this problem. Negative energy is gravitationally repulsive, and hence using it, a wormhole can be kept open, making room for the possibility of interstellar space travel.

[ Star drives don’t exist…yet.

To break out of the solar system, humans will need to break the budget – or physics itself.

The fastest thing humans have ever built is a probe called Helios 2. It’s dead now, but if sound travelled in space, you’d hear it screaming as it whips around the sun at speeds of more than 250,000 miles per hour. That’s almost 100 times faster than a bullet, but even at that velocity it would take some 19,000 years to reach Earth’s first stellar neighbour, Alpha Centauri. It’d be a multigenerational ship, and nobody dreams of going to space because it’s a nice place to die of old age.

To beat the clock, you need power – and lots of it. Maybe you could mine Jupiter for enough helium-3 to fuel nuclear fusion – after you’ve figured out fusion engines. Matter- antimatter annihilation is more scalable, but smashing those pugilistic particles together is dangerous. “You’d never want to do that on Earth,” says Les Johnson, technical assistant for NASA’s Advanced Concepts Office, which works on crazy starship ideas. “You do that in deep space, so if you have an accident, you don’t destroy a continent.” Too intense? How about solar power? All you’d need is a sail the size of Texas.

Far more elegant would be hacking the universe’s source code – with physics. The theoretical Alcubierre drive would compress space in front of your craft and expand space behind it so the stuff in between – where your ship is – effectively moves faster than light. Tweaking the Alcubierre equations gets you a Krasnikov tube, an interstellar subway that shortens your return trip.

All aboard? Not quite. Humanity will need a few more Einsteins working at places like the Large Hadron Collider to untangle all the theoretical knots. “It’s entirely possible that we’ll make some discovery that changes everything,” Johnson says. “But you can’t count on that breakthrough to save the day.” If you want eureka moments, you need to budget for them. That means more cash for NASA – and the particle physicists. Until then, Earth’s space ambitions will look a lot like Helios 2: stuck in a futile race around the same old star.

—Nick Stockton ]

Warp Drive

Einstein's special theory of relativity states that nothing can exceed the speed of light. It is a cosmological limit that cannot be exceeded or even matched. But even if we were to achieve speeds close to that of light, it would still take us several thousand years to traverse the great expanse of the universe. The concept of negative energy, however, provides a way around this problem by allowing for the possibility of creating a warp drive.

In 1994, Mexican physicist, Miguel Alcubierre Moya found a solution to Einstein's equations that can be used to build a warp drive comprising a warped space-time bubble that would transport a spacecraft at superluminal speeds from one region in space to another. Calculations have shown that negative energy would be required to create and maintain the warp bubble.

This warp bubble would house the spacecraft and convey it at arbitrary speeds. It would do so not by actually propelling the spacecraft, but rather by manipulating space-time. The space-time in front of the bubble would contract, reducing the distance from the destination. While that at its rear would expand, increasing the distance from the start. The spacecraft itself would remain still inside the bubble. Thus, without violating the absolute speed limit, the user would be able to achieve superluminal speed.
Thus, negative energy is a proven fact in physics that is known to exist all around us and everywhere in the Universe. This concept has found several applications in theoretical physics and may very well be the key for unlocking interstellar space travel one day.

Casimir Effect: a physical force arising from a quantized field, for example between two uncharged plates.  This can produce a locally mass negative region of space-time that could stabilize a wormhole to allow faster than light travel.

Solution: Negative energy

This one's a bit of a stretch, and I'm probably mangling the physics, but hey - that's what this whole post is about! Quantum physics is a graceful gazelle, and I'm a hyena. Let's chow down.

This relates to Warp Drive (see above). Basically, gravity produces negative energy, which is why mass is attracted by it. It's sort of an odd yin-yang duality, where mass is the positive yang, with gravity as its shadow - the two intertwined and never around without the other. Positive energy rushes toward negative energy, pulled toward its center.

Now, if warp drive is theoretically possible, based on the manipulation of negative and positive energy fields to warp spacetime, and positive and negative energy correlate to mass and gravity respectively, one might postulate that you can generate gravity by creating negative energy. And that you might, through the use of exotic material, manipulate that quasi-gravity into any shape you wanted.

Consider this: negative energy plates placed on the inner surface of a starship. Essentially it would be a shielded, layered matrix of exotic matter, with the "active" surface generating a negative energy field, while the "nonactive" surface would have a positive energy field canceling out its effect. The negative energy would be projected to only effect the surface of that plate.

This finagling is necessary because a spacetime is three-dimensional (well, 4-D) though we represent it as a flat sheet: a point of negative energy would pull on everything around it. You'd have to do some clever warping to ensure it only affects a certain area, i.e. the active surface. There's also the question of whether producing negative energy would give off a fatal amount of radiation, or use up too much power. What's necessary is a sort of semipassive system: exotic materials that naturally produce negative energy when a light current runs through them, then disarrange when the current is turned off - sort of like LED crystals.

Casimir Effect and negative energy

In the original paper by Casimir (1948), he showed a mathematical formula for calculating the force per square meter on metal plates in a vacuum. This is:

F = Hc (pi^2/240)(1/a^4)

Where:

F is the force on the plates (per square meter)
H is Planck’s constant divided by 2pi
c is the speed of light
a is the distance between the plates

The constant terms correspond to a value of:

1.3 x 10^-27 Jm

The force per meter squared corresponds to

F = 1.3 x 10^-27 Jm (1/a^4)

Where a is the plate separation in meters.

This is equivalent to energy per unit cubed because:

N/m^2 x m/m = J/m^3

Then:

1.3 x 10^-27 Jm (1/a^4) = ρv

Where ρv = vacuum energy density excluded.

The amount of negative mass excluded (mv) depends on the volume and density of the energy excluded.

mv = ρv (a)(A)

where:
a = distance between the plates
A = area of the plates

The mass of the metal used for the plates depends on the volume and area and density of the metal.

mm = ρm(d)(A)

where:
mm = mass of metal
ρm  = density of metal
d = thickness of metal
A = area of plates

In order to get a difference in vacuum energy density, the plates would have to be separated by some small distance. The ratio of the mass of the vacuum energy density to the mass of the plates can be set to determine what the separation distance would have to be in order to have a net negative energy.

Let’s say that the metal is one atom thick, or 143 pm thick.

The ratio of vacuum mass to metal mass can then be:

mv /mm

This corresponds to:

mv /mm = ρv (a)(A)/ ρm(d)(A)

From this we obtain:

mv /mm = ρv (a)/ ρm(d)

Further:

mv /mm = 1.3 x 10^-27 Jm (1/a^4)(a)/ ρm(d)

mv /mm = 1.3 x 10^-27 Jm (1/a^3)/ ρm(d)

mv /mm = 1.3 x 10^-27 Jm/(a^3 ρm(d))

Setting the mass ratio to 1.1 (making the vacuum mass excluded slightly more than the mass of the metal, thus the system would have a negative energy density):

1.1 = 1.3 x 10^-27 Jm 1/(a^3 ρm(d))

(1.1)(a^3 ρm(d))= 1.3 x 10^-27 Jm

a^3 = 1.3 x 10^-27 Jm /((1.1)( ρm(d))
          ____________________
a = 3√(1.2 x 10^-27 Jm)/( ρm(d))

If the density of the material (ρm) is that of aluminum (2.7 x 10^3 kg/m^3), then the energy density (Joules per meter cubed) (ρm) of the metal is:

2.7 x 10^3 kg/m^3 x 10^17 J /1 kg = 2.7 x 10^20 J/m^3
 
The plates then need to be separated by:
          ______________________
a = 3√(1.2 x 10^-27 Jm)/( ρm(d))
          _____________________________________________
a = 3√(1.2 x 10^-27 Jm)/( 2.7 x 10^20 J/m3 (1.43 x 10^-12 m))
          ______________
a = 3√ 3.1 x 10^-36 m^3

a = 1.5 x 10^-12 m or 1.5 pm


Thus, having metal plates one atom thick and separated by 1.5 pm, one could have a net negative energy in a material. If one could find some metal or unobtainium that was strong enough to have that much force per unit area on it while sticking together enough to make the material stable, one could have net negative mass. Negative mass can be used for a warp drive (Alcubierre, 1994), or a wormhole (Visser, 2003). Note that many layers makes for more negative mass.

Note that 1.5 pm is around the vibration amplitude for molecules. Molecules usually have bonds about 100 pm long, and they vibrate about 1 pm, but the colder they are the less they vibrate. Thus this mechanism may only work where it’s very cold, such as in space.

References:

Alcubierre, M. (1994). The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity. Classical and Quantum Gravity 11:L73-L77

Casimir, H. (1948). On the attraction between two perfectly conducting plates. Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 51: 793-795.

Visser, M. (2003). Traversable wormholes with arbitrarily small energy condition violations. Physical Review Letters 90: 201102.

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The phenomena of the quantum domain exhibit properties which break the fundamental laws of our physical domain. Such properties as these include: the wave-particle duality of photons, quantum superposition, quantum entanglement, quantum tunneling, non-locality, and uncertainty. Wave-particle duality is a property exhibited by subatomic particles which allows them to exist simultaneously as an abstract wave of probabilities and as a discrete unit of matter. Superposition is a related property, which allows quantum particles to exist simultaneously in two or more locations at once. Quantum entanglement refers to pairs of particles being “synced up” such that  they can “communicate” with one another instantaneously, regardless of the distance between them — thus violating the speed of light. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle describes the fact that it is impossible to simultaneously know a particle’s position, “where it is,” and its momentum, “where it’s going.” Once one is measured, the other becomes necessarily uncertain. Contrast these properties with something from the physical world, like an apple, and the absurdity of it all is made plain.

The existence of quantum phenomena demonstrates the error inherent in our conventional way of looking at the world. On our side of reality, the physical world, things are solid and objects have definite properties. If you look at a clear drinking glass, you will observe either that it contains liquid or that it contains no liquid. Never will you observe both situations at once. Yet that is precisely the kind of thing that “takes place” in the quantum world.

Perhaps the discrepancy between the quantum and physical domains is due to a fundamental flaw in the human mode of perception. Maybe the world brought to us by our senses and scientific instruments really is all just an illusion, what the Buddhists and Hindus call maya. Yet even if this is true, if existence is all just an elaborate kind of dream, shouldn’t we still be able to reconcile our scientific descriptions with one another. After all, they supposedly would exist entirely inside the world of illusion. Having stemmed from our humanly perceptions, they could never themselves reach beyond the realm of maya. The loop must close somewhere in sight.

To close this loop, let us reconsider physics’ two main descriptive frameworks: general relativity and quantum mechanics. Physicists have been trying to reconcile these two theories for years. It is thought that these theories must both be correct because they’ve both withstood some of the most rigorous experimental testing in the history of science. There have been many attempts to unify relativity and quantum mechanics, but despite half a centuries worth of theories, none of them seem to be able to account for one of the most well known concepts in all of science: gravity. Perhaps the problem of unification can be solved if we first consider the fundamental limits of our universe. This brings us to the work of physicist Max Planck.

The Planck Scale is the level at which the smallest measurements of spacetime can ever be made. If you zoom down to smaller and smaller levels of the physical word (e.g. from a hand, to skin cells, to molecules, to atoms, to protons, to quarks, etc.) eventually you will reach a point where no more zooming in is possible. You would hit wall, for it would be impossible to measure any length smaller than this. This is called the Planck length. Physicist discovered the existence of this absolute length by extrapolating from the already known universal physical constants (e.g. the speed of light). And just as there is an absolute smallest length, there is an absolute smallest unit of time, and an absolute smallest unit of mass.

Planck Length (hG ÷ c3) 1/2: This is the quantum of length, the smallest measurement of length that has meaning. It’s equal to 10-35 meter and is about 10-20 times the size of a proton.

Planck Time (hG ÷ c5) 1/2: This is the quantum of time, the smallest measurement of time that has any meaning. It is also sometime referred to as the “Planck second.”

Planck Mass (hc ÷ G) 1/2: This is small by everyday standards, but 1019 times the mass of a proton, and would be contained in a volume roughly 10-60 times that of a proton. This represents an enormous density that has not occurred naturally since the big bang.

All of these units combine to form what we call the Planck scale. The existence of this scale leads us to conclude that there is indeed a discernible “limit” or “boundary” to the physical world.  Beyond this horizon is the mysterious and ineffable Absolute. It is here, at the edge of spacetime, where the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics can take place, and where the wisdom of Buddhism shines through. 

In order to understand how this is so, we should first be familiar with field theories. Thus far, physicists have developed two main types of field theories: those concerning the world of classical physics and those concerning the world of quantum physics. Because of the different properties of these domains of reality, classical and quantum field theories are incompatible with one another. However, there is a growing effort among physicists to describe a “unified field,” which would unite the classical and quantum into one coherent framework. If successful, this would unify all the known forces and particles, including gravity, into one glorious mathematical theory of everything. This framework would thus be the most fundamental description of the known universe, reflecting the horizon beyond spacetime itself.

The concept of such an all pervasive field at the horizon beyond spacetime is also evoked in Buddhism. Depending on the sutra and the context of utterance, this ineffable essence of existence is known as: Universal Mind, the dharmadhātu, dharmakaya, alayavijnana, or tathagatagarbha. These are all merely different designations for the same one thing, different fingers pointing at the same moon.

However, we must acknowledge that the unified field is only a hypothetical framework. We shall, therefore, discuss the absolute aspect of reality as if it referred to the quantum field instead of the unified field. The distinction between the types of fields in this case is almost irrelevant to our purposes, for both rely on the same fundamental understanding of the universe as a field. But in reviewing the science, we ought to follow the roads most paved. This brings us to quantum field theory (QFT). Now we will briefly explore this and the related concepts of quantum vacuum fluctuations and quantum foam.

In QFT, the field state with the lowest possible energy is called the “vacuum state.” When there is a temporary change in the amount of energy in the field, it is an “excitation.” These excitations give rise to particles. Another term for such an excitation is “quantum fluctuation,” or to be more precise “quantum vacuum fluctuation.” And according to physicist John Wheeler, the totality of all the quantum vacuum fluctuations gives rise to the “quantum foam.”

The idea of quantum foam views all the waves and particles of the physical world as simply fluctuations on the surface of the quantum field. The metaphor of a body of water and the waves on its surface comes in handy here; only instead of waves, imagine the white foamy surface that sometimes arises in a pot of boiling water. Quantum foam is to be thought of as the fabric of our universe, and as mentioned earlier, one of the best ways to think of this “fabric of the universe” is with the concept of four-dimensional spacetime. Thus, the foam on the surface of the quantum field corresponds to our physical world of spacetime. Its quantum nature is manifest in the fact that our future exists merely as an abstract mathematical wave of probabilities. The unification of the physical and the quantum is seen at the Planck scale. The planck second can perhaps be thought of as one frame in the movie of our spacetime world-line, i.e. our life.

Now, if we take all of the ideas discussed thus far together, we may more clearly see the correspondence between Buddhism and theoretical physics. Einstein’s theory of spacetime and general relativity deals with the physical world, and corresponds to what many Buddhist traditions call Relative Truth, as opposed to Absolute Truth. In Buddhist terms, this theory could be said to describe samsara — the world of birth and death, of change and suffering, and of an ego that experiences the passage of time. On the other hand, quantum mechanics deals with the quantum world and could be said to correspond more with what is called Absolute Truth. For when we examine the aspect of reality where quantum phenomena occur, our conventional understanding of the world breaks down. Instead of observing an electron at one location or another, we find that it is both everywhere and nowhere. The quantum world is the realm of pure potentiality and possibility, and such words have also been used to describe the nature of nirvana. Fluctuations in this level of reality foam up and manifest in the physical world of spacetime, samsara.

Furthermore, consider the relation between descriptions of Universal Mind and the underlying quantum field which guides the unfolding of the universe. The metaphor about quantum foam, which saw of the physical world as nothing more than excitations on the surface of an ocean, is the very same one used in Zen Buddhism to explain the ultimate nature of reality. One of the primary Zen sutras says, “Universal Mind is like a great ocean, its surface ruffled by waves and surges but its depths remaining forever unmoved.” Neither the Universal Mind or quantum field are literally oceans, but using these comparisons is the greatest way we have to understand such difficult concepts. 

Hopefully this brief review of conceptions of the absolute in Buddhism and theoretical physics has demonstrated how they can be seen as merely two different pedagogical strategies used to evoke the same one understanding of reality. 

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Alcubierre Metric: The Idea of a Stable Warp Field

In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre developed a geodesic equation to describe space-time warped in a bubble around a ship, creating a "warp drive".

The warp drive proposed by Alcubierre could achieve near light speeds and even faster-than-light speeds by distorting space-time. To accomplish this, a theoretical device would generate a field of negative energy that would squeeze or stretch space-time, creating the bubble. The bubble would ride the distortions like a surfer on a wave. 
As evidenced by cosmic inflation in the big bang, in certain conditions space-time can expand so quickly that objects can move faster than the speed of light.
 

The theoretical basis for the operation of this experiment is that a massive object causes spacetime to curve and in-turn spacetime tells a massive object how to move and accelerate.

It is postulated that spacetime curvature can be modified using powerful electromagnetic fields to reduce the inertial mass of a starship. 
 

By bending spacetime in a particular way you can make it so that locally you move slower than light, but that the overall effect is faster-than-light travel.  The arrangement of matter and energy that allows for this is unfortunately impossible.  This diagram is from page 145 of “Gravity”, by Hartle.


In the weakest implementation of this theory a starship can be made to accelerate as if the inertial mass of the starship were reduced making near light speed possible using simple electric thrusters. However, in the most advanced implementation of this experiment when the energy of the electromagnetic fields cause the inertial mass of a starship to become imaginary the starship in the warp bubble will become tachyonic and will be capable of moving faster than the speed of light. In its advanced form the object in the warp bubble is isolated from the rest of the universe allowing the warp bubble to become a local frame of reference where Faster Than Light (FTL) travel does not violate the local speed of light (c).

A Tachyon is a hypothetical particle postulated to move at a velocity greater than the speed of electromagnetic radiation, such that as the particle accelerates it loses energy. Of the two properties rest mass and energy, one must be real and the other imaginary. If a tachyon exists it may be detected through the emission of Cerenkov radiation (a kind of electromagnetic shock wave) in a particle accelerator or by cosmic ray collisions.



The Alcubierre metric was the first attempt to design a theoretical model that can make some predictions about what is necessary for a warp drive.


Here also, is some plots showing some of the key aspects of the model including the Alcubierre Metric,  Light Cone and Energy density around a hypothetical warp ship.



 Miguel Alcubierre's famous warp metric is of the form:

 

with
 

which is simply the velocity of the system, in classical mechanics this is given similarly through v=dx(distance)/dt(time).  The d term arises through calculus, where one receives the geodesic relation for a curvature (i.e. an arc circle) and the line path.  Also note that for consistency the terms dy²+dz² are needed in the first equation, however, is not needed directly to understand the warp theory, and is removed to make the equation easier to handle.  The r_s term is given through

 

neglecting the y and z components it is the difference between the original coordinates and the warp drive coordinates.  Where a localized region of space is propelled through the x direction (to the right in the figure below) by a velocity determined through the function f(r_s) which resembles a "top hat" function (given through trigonometry):

 

This metric supposes a contraction of spacetime in front of a body, with a expansion behind it.  The expansion and contraction can be seen through the coordinates x and r=(y²+z²)^1/2 (which is shown in the figure below).


Using such a metric, generated around a ship,  we can picture a craft surfing what is essentially a gravitational wave front:




 

(1) The vertical dimension represents how much a given volume of space-time expands or contracts in Alcubierre’s model. Positive values [red] imply an expansion in space-time caused by negative mass-energy density in Einstein's theory of General Relativity. When space-time expands behind a craft, it propels the ship forward.
(2) Inside the warp bubble, neutral space-time would leave the ship undisturbed. Passengers would experience a zero-G environment.  Artificial gravity can be created in a portion of the ship using rotation to create a stable centrifugal force.
(3) Negative values [blue] imply a contraction in space-time caused by positive (i.e."normal") mass-energy density. The contraction balances the expansion of space-time as the bubble moves forward. Combined this allows the ship to "surf" the gravitational wave front.


These plots were developed using a Matlab code I wrote which is available for copying at the end of the page.


In fact what Alcubierre proposed as a "warp drive" is using a form of bipolar (or "dual") gravitational waves as a method of propulsion.  Gravitational waves in general relativity are planar and hence each wave expands and contracts, however, the Alcubierre metric in principle suggest that such an effect could be bipolar, possibly explaining the necessity for a "negative mass-energy density" requirement.

What this metric truly suggest is that such a manipulation of space would cause spacetime to propel a localized region of space (refereed to as a warp bubble) by expanding and contracting the metric field.  Since gravitational radiation is believed to propagate at the speed of light the prolusion of this space is similar in principle as to how electric and magnetic field cause electromagnetic radiation to propagate.

Another way Alcubierre's warp geometry can be made a reality using the Van Den Broeck metric:
 

The basis of this model is to shrink a "warp bubble" (this refers to the flat spacetime within Alcubierre's warp metric) to microscopic proportions to negotiate around the negative energy conditions.  This is beacuse the basis of the Alcubierre metric requires an enormous amount of negative energy, which according to classical conservation laws shouldn't exist.  So the Broeck metric shows basically how to shrink the "Alcubierre warp bubble," so that it requires less "negative energy."


This however only effects the external properties of the warp bubble while internally the effects of the bubble could be as large as one wished (this deals with the construction of energy densites within the field).  The main benefit of this theory is that it dramatically lowers the negative energy requirements, thereby making warp drive look feasible with an advanced technology.

Nevertheless, such a metric requires a mass-energy density the size of Jupiter concentrated in a region around a football field. Engineering specifications of such a device is therefore literally in outer space and no sane person would, or should, fund it.

Ideas about how such a device would work are, however, free. Theoretical physics is the cheapest form of science to fund, even cheaper than mathematics. Unlike mathematics where the mathematician only needs a pencil, paper and a waste paper bin for the ideas he throws out the theoretical physicist can be kept happy without the waste paper bin!

As Richard Feynman once joked in his lecture series on the "Character of Physical Law" "Every theoretical physicist has at least 6 different competing theories for the same phenomena floating around in his head, each describing the same phenomena in a different way but coming to similar conclusions"

However, as with any theory, there are loopholes around such scenarios as faster than light travel which lead to paradoxes. One such paradox is that if a ship is travelling faster than c, then should'nt it appear to be travelling backwards in time? Paradoxes should be therefore expected as we do not fully understand the true nature of gravitational interactions particularly with atomic or subatomic phenomena.


 

Physical Principles needed to "Build" Alcubierre's Warp Drive

The warp drive proposed by Alcubierre could achieve near light speeds and even faster-than-light speeds by distorting space-time. To accomplish this, a theoretical device would generate a field of negative energy that would squeeze or stretch space-time, creating the bubble. The bubble would ride the distortions like a surfer on a wave. 

As evidenced by the uniformity of the Cosmic Microwave Background from the Big Bang, which is explained by inflationary cosmology, space-time can expand so quickly that objects can move faster than the speed of light. 
Therefore the current models of physics generally allow for the existence of a warp field that can accelerate objects faster than the speed of light.

The real questions to ask is whether or not such a warp field can exist on macroscopic scales and if so can it remain stable for long enough to observe its effects, on light in a laser interferometer for example.

Moreover it is unknown how it is technologically possible, i.e under what conditions does matter allow for the creation of a negative energy density?

In 1948, Theoretical Physicists Hendrik Casimir and Dirk Polder proposed that a negative presssure can exist due to quantum vacuum fluctuations operating on very small scales in space and time and that if two uncharged metallic plates in a vacuum, placed a few micrometers apart the quantum fluctuations should create a force between the 2 plates due to a differential vacuum energy density between the inside and outside of the plates.

Classical Experimental Setup of the Casimir Effect 

In a classical description, the lack of an external field automatically means that there is no field between the plates, and no force would be measured between them. However when the zero-point field is instead studied using the QED vacuum of quantum electrodynamics, it is seen that the plates do affect the virtual photons which constitute the field, and generate a net force.

The force can give either an attraction or a repulsion depending on the specific arrangement of the two plates. 

Although the Casimir effect can be expressed in terms of virtual particles interacting with the objects, it is best described and more easily calculated in terms of the zero-point energy of a quantized field in the intervening space between the objects. 

It was not until 1997, however, that a direct experiment, by Steve Lamoreaux, quantitatively measured the force (to within 15% of the value predicted by the theory)

Previous work in the 1970's had observed the force qualitatively, and indirect validation of the predicted Casimir energy had been made by measuring the thickness of liquid helium films by Sabisky and Anderson in 1972. Subsequent experiments with liquid Helium-3 approach an accuracy of a few percent. 

Using Bose-Einstein Condensates it may also be possible to suppress background effects occurring between individual molecules, such as the Van Der Waals Forces, which will help to quantify the necessary boundary conditions in the second quantisation calculations of Quantum Electrodynamics. This would allow the effect of the vacuum to become dominant in the medium and allow for a more direct observation of negative energy density affecting it.

This could also allow for further studies in solid state physics on how the Casimir effect could be controlled at the nanoscale and what physics and applications can be gained from it. 

Some of this research, although abstract, may help us to understand how electronic transitions occur at the smallest of scales and how to suppress noise, such as that caused by the Casimir effect, in nanoscale circuitry, such as in the emergent fields of quantum circuitry. 


Therefore by probing some deep questions of physics, and examining theories such as "Warp Drives" we may uncover a great deal of knowledge and gain proposals for some interesting experiments, perhaps even stumbling upon the foundations of warp drive itself along the way.

Warp Drive General Realitivity (pdf)

--------------------------------

WarpShip is an update and expansion of the IXS Enterprise, focusing on updating everything to work properly in 1.0.2, adding some futuristic functionality while maintaining good integration with stock parts, and creating some new gameplay options but not adding too much complexity to the game. The core of the mod is, of course, Stevie_D's IXS Enterprise parts, but it also adds several models from KSP Interstellar in order to give more flexibility when building your WarpShip. However, WarpShip itself is not all that compatible with KSP Interstellar and the parts generally do vastly different things. WarpShip also uses quite a bit of code from the USI Alcubierre Warp Drive by RoverDude and Helaeon.

Space Warps and Wormholes

Negative matter is probably the best scenario if faster than light space travel proves to be impossible. Unfortunately, there are still some drawbacks. It is not clear if negative matter exists at all in our universe (Forward speculated that it might be the dominant form of matter in distant regions of space which seem to be almost totally devoid of galaxies; the positive matter would gradually be "repelled" into distinct regions where it forms normal galaxies and stars). Also, in the Breakaway scenario depicted in the previous paragraphs, the Moon/antimoon pair would need more than a decade to reach a significant fraction of the speed of light since the gravity force and hence acceleration is quite small. The final result is that the Alphans would experience lots of weird phenomena such as time dilation as they reach old age and the Moon is moving almost at the speed of light in deep space, but the first few decades on Alpha would be rather boring.


Even if objects cannot move faster than the speed of light, it seems space itself (according what is currently known about general relativity) can. Space can expand faster than light-speed, carrying very distant galaxies away from the solar system faster than light even if they are at rest relative to their local neighbours in space. It seems spacetime can be made to expand or contract at any speed. Faster-than-light space travel would then be possible simply by expanding space behind e.g. the Moon and contracting space in front of it.

This would be achieved by applying enormous amounts of negative energy (negative mass, negative gravity) outside a "warp bubble" of normal surrounding the object, see illustration above. To an observer on Alpha, the Moon itself would appear to be moving at the same velocity in local space as it always does but it might traverse five light years in a matter of minutes as spacetime is "warped" (see the Space Warp episode. The Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre has demonstrated that the concept is possible at least in principle, but in practice it seems to require impossibly large quantities of negative energy. E.g. propelling even a small ship might exceed the total energy available in our entire galaxy. Nonetheless, we might postulate that God-like omnipotent aliens (perhaps capable of harnessing the energy of an entire universe) possess the capability. "Space warps" might explain how the Moon was able to quickly leave Earth orbit and apparently reach other distant star systems within weeks of Breakaway.
Wormholes

"Wormholes" also require negative energy. A Wormhole is a "tunnel" connecting two different points in spacetime in such a way that a trip through the wormhole could take much less time than a journey between the same starting and ending points in normal space. The ending point might be located somewhere in the past or the future of our universe, or even in a totally different universe. In the Journey To Where episode, Koenig, Helena and Alan apparently travel back to Earth through a wormhole, i.e. a shortcut through space and time (wormhole like phenomena are also alluded to in Space Warp, A Matter of Balance and The Taybor). In this case, the wormhole "mouth" connected to Alpha would have been rapidly accelerated through space whereas the one leading to Texas City remained almost stationary. Einstein's theory of relativistic time dilation would result in the accelerated wormhole mouth ageing less than the stationary one as seen by an external observer (the Alphans have been in space only approx 18 months whereas 121 years have passed on Earth). Thanks to the wormhole, direct communication and travel between widely separated locations in space and time becomes possible. Wormhole "time machines" have been described in Black Holes and Time Warps (1994) by Kip Thorne, who notes that one significant limitation is that it is only possible to go as far back in time as the initial creation of the machine, i.e. this particular wormhole must have existed since at least 1339.

As with space warps, the big problem is that enormous quantities of negative energy would be required to keep the wormhole "throat" open. Wormholes are thought to occur naturally but they are so short-lived and small that not even the tiniest amount of matter could pass through.

How To Travel Faster Than Light - BBC Focus Magazine

How It Works – Warp Drive, 2016 - your future in space.

Spaceships of science fiction - Focus Volume one

Warp Drive Equation....

Warp Drive Çizimleri

Warp Drive Science

Wormhole Theory (Infographic)

Warp Drive Equations

Warp Drive Çizimleri-1

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