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Faster-Than-Light Space Warps: What's It All About?

Conference Paper · August 2013

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Fast er -Than-Light Space W ar ps: W hat ’s
It All About ?

StarShip Congress 2013

August 15 - 18, 2013 – Dallas, TX

Dr. Eric W. Davis, FBIS, AFAIAA

Senior Research Physicist
Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin

[email protected]
 Out line
• Light Cone Gymnastics

• Faster-Than-Light Space Warps:

Traversable Wormholes & Warp
Drives

• Exotic Matter & FTL Space Warp

Energetics

• Problems with Warp Drive “No-Go”

Claims

• Detecting & Producing Negative

Vacuum Energy for Constructing
FTL Space Warps

• Conclusion
Light Cone Gy mnast ics
• 1905 – Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity in flat spacetime:
– No material objects can reach or exceed light speed
– Light Speed, c = 3 x 108 m/s or 3.28 million football fields per second
– Universal speed limit
 Not really! Quantum theory allows super-/sub-luminal photons in special cases
– Light Cones of Causality are universally fixed for all observers
• 1915 – Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity:
– Replaced Newton’s laws of motion & gravity ⇒ forces/accelerations
replaced by “curved” or “warped” spacetime geometry
– Special Theory of Relativity is built-in
– Very well tested, most predictions verified, few predictions left to verify
– Spacetime is like a stiff rubber sheet that is warped by any source of
mass-energy density & stress/pressure…but with great difficulty
– Light Cones of Causality are NOT universally fixed for all
observers…some light cones can be tilted over w.r.t. other light
cones in a warped space ⇒ relative FTL motion allowed
Fast er -Than-Light Space W ar ps:
Tr av er sable W or mholes & W ar p
Dr iv es
Einst ein’s Gener al Relat iv it y Pr edict s Tw o
T y pes of F a s ter -T ha n-Light S pa ce W a r ps
 Einst ein’s GR → F T L
S pa cetime Geometr ies
R equir e “E xotic” M a tter →
N ega tiv e E ner gy
D ens ity /F lux
N o pr oblem! Qua ntum
F ield T heor y & N a tur e
P r ov ides

Spacetime
Curvature:
Warping of Space

Source of Matter: Energy

Density & Flux,
Stress/Pressure
 Traversable Universes
Wormholes
Locations
Spherical Sharp
Connections Times Edge
Cubic
Rounded
Aspherical Edge

Polyhedron
Throats
Prisms

Loops
Faster-Than-Light
via Static
Flat
Spacetime Engineering Temporal
Dynamic

Alcubierre
(Expansn/Contractn) White-Davis Brane
World
Van Den Broeck
(Modified-Alcubierre)
Obousy Extra-Space
Warp Drives
Dimensional Casimir
Krasnikov Warp Tunnel

Puthoff-Davis-Maccone
Natário Polarizable Vacuum
(No Expans/Contractn)
M iguel Alcubier r e’s W ar p Dr iv e
 It ’s Yor k Time, Folk s!

Graphic from Popular Science, April 2013

Flamm Diagr am f or Kip Thor ne’s
S pher ica l T r a v er s a ble W or mhole
Phy sical Appear ance of Spher ical
T r a v er s a ble W or mhole

13
 St ar gat e Solut ion: σ = ϑ1 = ϑ2 = 0

Flat wormhole throat ∂Ω as viewed by

observer sitting in region Ω1 who looks thru
∂Ω and sees remote region Ω2 (dotted area
inside circle) on the other side. 14
Exot ic M at t er & FTL Space W ar p
Ener get ics
 The Taxonomy of Exot ic M at t er
Squeezed Vacuum States Fermionic

Gravitationally Squeezed Bosonic

(red-shifted) Vacuum ZPF
Static
Gravitationally Polarized
Vacuum
Dynamic

“Exotic” Other Field Polarization of

Quantum Vacuum Minkowski (flat)
Matter –
According to Casimir Vacuum Energy
Curved Space

Nature & Topological

Quantum Spaces
Cosmological Inflation
Field Theory Extra-Space
Dimensions
Black Hole & Cosmological
Brane-Worlds
Particle Production

Maxwellian
Other Quantum Field States
Non-Maxwellian
= observed in lab or in nature, Classical & Conformally
Quantum
or it is expected but not yet Coupled Scalar Fields
Chromodynamic
observable, or it is a
measureable consequence Conformal Anomaly
 FTL Space W ar p E ner getics P r edicted
by E ins tein’s GR T heor y

• Negative energy to produce short-

throat traversable wormhole:
rthroat = diameter of throat

• Total negative energy to produce basic

warp drive (starship mass ≠ 0):
Vwarp= dimensionless speed of warp bubble
R = radius of warp bubble
σ ~ ∆−1 (∆ = warp bubble wall thickness)

• General Relativity constrains warp speed:

• gravitational coupling of starship mass Mship
with warp bubble
• net total energy stored in warp bubble
< total starship rest-energy
The Bonf ir e of The Realit ies

Sun’s rest-energy = 1.79 x 1047 J

 Tot al Negat iv e Ener gy Requir ed f or
T r a v er s a ble W or mholes
Gauss-Bonnet Theorem relating local
wormhole geometry (LHS) to global (c = G = 1)
topological invariant of spacetime (RHS).
LHS: Gaussian curvature of traversable wormhole H
µ = G(u,u)/8π energy density; G(u,u) = Einstein tensor  Visser et al. Energy Conditions
u = unit vector tangent to Killing vector
||h||2 = square of trace of 2nd fundamental form
RHS: χe = 2(1 – g) Euler number
g = genus, number of wormhole throats

 Negative energy density & total negative energy

to produce spherical traversable wormhole throat:
ρE = energy density; pr = radial pressure
pi = spatial pressure component
dV = spatial integration measure

ℓ = negative energy shell thickness

κg = surface gravity inside throat
 FTL Space W ar p E ner getics P r edicted
by A lter na tiv e W a r p D r iv e A ppr oa ches
• R. K. Obousy et al.: • H. G. White, NASA-JSC:
– Use negative Casimir vacuum – High-frequency pulsing of warp
energy in extra-space dimensions bubble
to produce warp bubble – ∆ → thicker, then
Ewarp → much smaller
 Negative (equivalent) mass of
Jupiter  Negative (equivalent) mass of
Voyager 1 flyby probe (721.9 kg)
– Universal Warp Speed Limit: 1032c
Pr oblems w it h W ar p Dr iv e
“No-Go” Claims
 Ef f ect s of Quant um Back -R ea ction (in
1+1 D imens iona l S pa cetime)

Warp Bubble

Quantum
Back-Reaction: Formulated in scalar field
FTL “No-Go” Toy 1+1
Dimensional
Claims Field tensor
Spacetimes
operator:
LOCAL
 Ef f ect s of Quant um Back -R ea ction (in
1+1 D imens iona l S pa cetime)

Warp Bubble

Cannot
Generalize 1+1 Field tensor
Back-Reaction operator:
to Physical 3+1 NONLOCAL
component
Spacetime
Cont r ol of W ar p Bubble & Communicat ion w / Out side
(in 1+1 D imens iona l S pa cetime)

Warp Bubble

Event Horizons
– Similar to
Supersonic
Shock Cones
 Det ect ing & Pr oducing Negat iv e
Vacuum Ener gy f or Const r uct ing FTL
Space W ar ps
Pr oducing Negat iv e Vacuum Ener gy
Det ect ing Negat iv e Vacuum Ener gy
Const r uct ing FTL Space W ar ps
Conclusion
 Critical technology issues & EarthTech Int’l, Inc. experimental program:
• Produce negative vacuum energy in large amounts
⇒ scalability of present technologies ⇒ explore new ways to produce it, scale it up
⇒ Ford-Svaiter parabolic cylindrical mirror, advanced laser photonics, etc.

• Detecting negative vacuum energy

⇒ Balanced Homodyne Detector for Casimir Cavity

• Gain new insights by simulating FTL Space Warps in the lab

⇒ lab experiments via transformational optics & metamaterials for analogue gravity
⇒ computational visualization of the nonlinear dynamics of FTL spacetimes
Emergent Spacetime/Gravity theory needed to move forward in a practical way:
• Publications: Sakharov, de Felice, Dicke, Puthoff, Visser et al., Urban et al., Leuchs et al.
 “Induced Gravity” ⇒ emerges from Quantum Field Theory in same sense that
hydrodynamics and continuum elasticity theory emerge from molecular physics
⇒ “Physical” spacetime is a nonlinear optical medium of vacuum fluctuations
⇒ Distorting/polarizing vacuum fluctuations produces General Relativistic effects, FTL
space warps, etc.

Engineering the Vacuum – first introduced to physics community by T. D. Lee (1988):

“The experimental method to alter the properties of the vacuum may be called vacuum
engineering…If indeed we are able to alter the vacuum, then we may encounter some new
phenomena, totally unexpected.”
W ill t his be our f ut ur e?
Back -U p S lides
 Exot ic M at t er Is M ost ly Quant um Field “St uf f ” →
Need Semi-Classical Quant um Gr av it y
(in Phy sical 3+ 1Dimensional Spacet ime)

“Excited”
Classical Fluctuations:
Spacetime Vacuum
Fluctuations in Entangled Particles
Curvature – Quantum
Quantum Field
Nonlocality

Deformed
Fluctuations:
Local Vacuum
Polarization –
Cloud of Negative
Quantum Energy
Back-
Quantum Field Reaction
Source Tensor

Discontinuous,
Acausal Changes
in Curvature

Mwarp = equiv. mass of total negative energy

threading FTL space warp
rw = radial distance from center of Mwarp
 W or ldline Quant um Inequalit ies in
S emi-Cla s s ica l Qua ntum Gr a v ity

Bounds on
Restricts
Quantum Restricts amount
existence of
Violations of & duration of
FTL space
Energy negative energy
warps
Conditions

No
Formulated in interacting
Toy Lower- Proven for many fields
Dimensional cases using
Spacetimes for phenomenological
Free Fields quantum field Field tensor
operator:
LOCAL

Cannot
Generalize to Field tensor
Spacetime- operator:
Averaged QIs in NONLOCAL
Physical 3+1 component
Spacetime
 FTL Space W ar ps & Time M achines

• GR & Quantum Gravity theories infested with time

machines
• Time machines (Closed Time-like Curves) are
inevitable consequence of FTL spacetimes
• Not related to some intrinsic disease of superluminal
motion
• Global properties of spacetime break causality in GR

• Field propagating between spacetime points

that are time-ordered via field’s metric…
→ Causality preserved even if field is
superluminal
• No Grandfather-type CTCs exist because
events along their curve not freely
specifiable
• Other CTC types exist because events
along their curve freely specifiable
M oment um Conser v at ion in FTL Space
W a r ps

• No meaningful local expression for

gravitational energy-momentum
• Application of Noether’s Theorem in
GR becomes trivial
⇒ NO conserved quantities can be
found

Einstein’s General Relativity:

• Curved spacetime is gravitation
• Curved spacetime does not obey
Newton’s 3rd Law
⇒ Implies existence of SPACE DRIVES
FTL Guidance, Nav igat ion & Cont r ol:
W a r p D r iv es
 FTL Guidance, Nav igat ion & Cont r ol:
T r a v er s a ble W or mholes

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