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Questions tagged [warp-drives]

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)

39 votes
7 answers
15k views

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 ...
Larry Gritz's user avatar
28 votes
3 answers
1k views

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 ...
Retarded Potential's user avatar
24 votes
4 answers
6k views

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's user avatar
  • 589
15 votes
6 answers
7k views

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 ...
Ozzah's user avatar
  • 677
15 votes
2 answers
10k views

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 ...
user's user avatar
  • 807
13 votes
2 answers
3k views

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 ...
Prido1024's user avatar
  • 151
10 votes
3 answers
1k views

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, ...
lurscher's user avatar
  • 14.5k
9 votes
2 answers
2k views

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?
Lord Farquaad - E's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
3k views

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 ...
Mitchell Porter's user avatar
8 votes
4 answers
2k views

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 ...
Beefster's user avatar
  • 191
8 votes
3 answers
2k views

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, ...
Arc's user avatar
  • 227
8 votes
2 answers
4k views

Doesn't Warp theory violate causality? [duplicate]

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 ...
Dhruva Patil's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
665 views

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 ...
Martin Vesely's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
2k views

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 ...
mring's user avatar
  • 911
8 votes
2 answers
299 views

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 ...
Anthony X's user avatar
  • 4,114

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