"The energy savings would need to be drastic, of approximately 30 orders of magnitude to be in range of modern nuclear fission reactors." "The energy required for this drive traveling at light speed encompassing a spacecraft of 100 meters in radius is on the order of hundreds of times of the mass of the planet Jupiter," Lentz says.
It's an impressive feat of theoretical gymnastics, although the amount of energy needed means this warp drive is only a hypothetical possibility for now. With sufficient energy, configurations of these solitons could function as 'warp bubbles', capable of superluminal motion, and theoretically enabling an object to pass through space-time while shielded from extreme tidal forces.
In the new work, Lentz proposes one such way we might be able to do this, thanks to what he calls a new class of hyper-fast solitons – a kind of wave that maintains its shape and energy while moving at a constant velocity (and in this case, a velocity faster than light).Īccording to Lentz's theoretical calculations, these hyper-fast soliton solutions can exist within general relativity, and are sourced purely from positive energy densities, meaning there's no need to consider exotic negative-energy-density sources that haven't yet been verified. This speculative concept would make use of negative energy principles to warp space around a hypothetical spacecraft, enabling it to effectively travel faster than light without challenging traditional physical laws, except for the reasons explained above, we can't hope to provide such a fantastical fuel source to begin with.īut what if it were possible to somehow achieve faster-than-light travel that keeps faith with Einstein's relativity without requiring any kinds of exotic physics that physicists have never seen?Īrtistic impression of different spacecraft designs in 'warp bubbles'.
In addition to facilitating other kinds of abstract possibilities, such as wormholes and time travel, negative energy could help power what's known as the Alcubierre warp drive. While this kind of negative energy happens on a quantum scale, piling up enough in the form of 'negative mass' is still a realm for exotic physics. To bend a small bubble of space in a similar fashion for transport purposes, we'd need to solve relativity's equations to create a density of energy that's lower than the emptiness of space. In fact, the far reaches of the Universe are already stretching away faster than its light could ever hope to match. While pushing matter past the speed of light will always be a big no-no, spacetime itself has no such rule. That hasn't stopped physicists from trying to break this universal speed limit, though. Within conventional physics, in accordance with Albert Einstein's theories of relativity, there's no real way to reach or exceed the speed of light, which is something we'd need for any journey measured in light-years. There are some problems with this notion, however. Hypothetical travel times to Proxima Centauri, the nearest-known star to the Sun. This is an area that attracts plenty of bright ideas, each offering a different approach to solving the puzzle of faster-than-light travel: achieving a means of sending something across space at superluminal speeds. In a new study by physicist Erik Lentz from Göttingen University in Germany, we may have a viable solution to the dilemma, and it's one that could turn out to be more feasible than other would-be warp drives.
Give them an impossible dream, and they'll give you an incredible, hypothetical way of making it a reality. Physicists are not the kind of people who give up easily, though.
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