Journal Article 1 Mention
The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity
Miguel Alcubierre1994
Top 3% · 97th Percentile
543 citations · Astronomy and Astrophysics
Open Access

Summary

1 Sample Definition And Size

The paper is a theoretical study proposing a spacetime metric modification within general relativity to enable arbitrarily fast travel; no empirical sample or number of subjects is involved.

2 Study Type

Theoretical physics study presenting a novel solution (metric) within general relativity (a theoretical model paper).

3 Conflicts Of Interest

No conflicts of interest are declared in the original paper.

4 Results Summary

The key result is that by locally expanding spacetime behind a spacecraft and contracting it in front, superluminal travel is possible within general relativity without wormholes; however, the construction requires exotic (negative-energy) matter to generate the spacetime distortion.

Abstract

It is shown how, within the framework of general relativity and without the\nintroduction of wormholes, it is possible to modify a spacetime in a way that\nallows a spaceship to travel with an arbitrarily large speed. By a purely local\nexpansion of spacetime behind the spaceship and an opposite contraction in\nfront of it, motion faster than the speed of light as seen by observers outside\nthe disturbed region is possible. The resulting distortion is reminiscent of\nthe ``warp drive'' of science fiction. However, just as it happens with\nwormholes, exotic matter will be needed in order to generate a distortion of\nspacetime like the one discussed here.\n

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