warp drives are generic conceptual space travel mechanisms that try to work around physical limits in the speed of propagation of light imposed by special relativity. Usually they resort to speculative science (exotic matter), or phenomena that are not yet well understood or is hard to make validation experiments (non-eternal rotating black holes)
Questions tagged [warp-drives]
144 questions
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How does "warp drive" not violate Special Relativity causality constraints?
I'm talking about this nonsense: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/06/11/this-is-the-amazing-design-for-nasas-star-trek-style-space-ship-the-ixs-enterprise/
Now, I'm aware that there are problems with the practicalities (or…
Larry Gritz
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Would warp bubbles emit gravitational Cerenkov radiation in general relativity?
Inspired by the gravtiomagnetic analogy, I would expect that just as a charged tachyon would emit normal (electromagetic) Cerenkov radiation, any mass-carrying warp drive would emit gravitational Cerenkov radiation. The gravitomagnetic approximation…
Retarded Potential
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Could a ship equipped with Alcubierre drive theoretically escape from a black hole?
Could a ship equipped with Alcubierre drive theoretically escape from a black hole?
Also, could it reach parts of the universe that are receding faster than the speed of light from us?
sashoalm
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Alcubierre Drive - Clarification on relativistic effects
On the Wikipedia article on the Alcubierre drive, it says:
Since the ship is not moving within this bubble, but carried along as the region itself moves, conventional relativistic effects such as time dilation do not apply in the way they would in…
Ozzah
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Does the Alcubierre drive have a theoretical upper speed limit?
Every now and then, it's claimed that the Alcubierre drive has an upper speed limit. While superluminal, this is often brought up as an argument why such a drive, even if it were to turn out to be viable and possible to construct, would still…
user
- 797
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Why does an Alcubierre drive, travelling FTL, violate causality, if the universe expanding FTL doesn't?
An Alcubierre drive seems to be plausible as a means to travel faster than light, because
it doesn't move the object itself, but the space around it.
it's said that matter and information can't move through space faster than light, but space itself…
Prido1024
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Warp drive with gravitational waves in the nonlinear regime
gravitational waves are strictly transversal (in the linear regime at least), also their amplitudes are tiny even for cosmic scale events like supernovas or binary black holes (at least far away, maybe we should ask some physicists located a bit…
lurscher
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Doesn't Warp theory violate causality?
I have heard many physicists (ex:- Michio Kaku) saying "Warp speed" from Star Trek doesn't violate any known physical laws. But doesn't it violate causality?
Say, we make warp drive possible and travel towards Alpha Centauri (4.22 light years away)…
Dhruva Patil
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Erik Lentz's faster-than-light soliton
It's well known that, in relativity, if you can go faster than light, you can go backwards in time and create a paradox.
Also, attempts to create "warp-drive" space-times in which something moves faster than light (the best known is the Alcubierre…
Mitchell Porter
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Einstein field equations to the Alcubierre metric
I was wondering how Alcubierre derived the metric for the warp drive? Sources have said it's based on Einstein's field equations, but how did he go from this to the metric?
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What's going on along the "sides" of an Alcubierre warp bubble?
The models/depictions I've seen of warp bubbles show space compressed ahead of the bubble and expanded behind, so that the space inside the bubble moves with respect to the space outside. If that is so, then what is happening at the sides? It would…
Anthony X
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How to make a warp bubble moving?
In answer to this question it is stated that:
In summary, warp drives move because they already move, or else they need to propel, and their movement is not related to spacetime expansion or contraction.
This means that firstly a warp bubble had…
Martin Vesely
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Why Can We Observe Space Curvature / Warping At All?
I don't understand why we are able to see and measure curvature / warping of space at all.
Space as I understand it determines distances between objects, so if space were "compressed" or warped, shouldn't distances be compressed or warped the same…
Arc
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No FTL information implies no FTL travel?
The general consensus in the scientific community is that it is impossible to transmit information faster than light.
There is also speculation that it might be possible to open wormholes or travel faster than light with an Alcubierre…
Beefster
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Getting back out of an Alcubierre warp bubble
Does the theory on paper provide a way for hypothetical travelers to get back out of the bubble that has gotten them close to their distant destination by compressing all the space in front of them and expanding the space behind it?
I was picturing…
mring
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