New Discovery Suggests Warp Drive is Possible Within the Realm of Known Physics

In order to check this possibility, a team of physicists from the University of Alabama at Huntsville and the Applied Physics Advanced Propulsion Lab in New York proposed a model that speaks about the idea of constructing a subluminal warp drive.

In a paper published in the Classical and Quantum Gravity, they shared details of the scientific assumptions that they base their idea on and why they believe that warp drives are not strictly limited to fantasy anymore.

Warp drives in this context especially popularized by the television series Star Trek, is theoretical means of propulsion which are believed to be capable of moving spaceships at speeds hitherto unimagined or achievable not to mention faster than the speed of light.

These velocities are achievable in fiction through reaching out in front of an approaching spacecraft passing through the space and then inflating the same space behind it to back to normal.

According to prevailing scientific knowledge, building warp drives in reality is beyond the realm of the possible. However, the team’s future work may challenge the current theories if it proves successful, which could mean significant changes to the current understanding.

Their work builds on the foundational work done by Miguel Alcubierre who in 1994 proffered the physics method through which warp drives could work though this largely presupposes negative energy, the chance of which remains ambiguous.

In this latest research, the team has come up with another model that produces similar conclusions hence making no use of negative or any other sorts of exotic energy.

The team combines such physics of the current age with the basic thought of gravity and puts together how the warp bubble is formed around an object to travel at a velocity far higher than theorized but not closer to the velocity of light.

The correspondence of the technology with the researches suggests a core of the shell made of stable matter and a “shift vector distribution” akin to the one that Alcubierre envisioned.

They also argue that such a technology will make it possible to achieve velocities just below speed of light. Nevertheless, they reluctantly admit that erecting such technologically remains out of reach of present technical advancements, suggesting that even if it is workable; it would be ages before it could be attained.

Reference: Jared Fuchs et al, Constant velocity physical warp drive solution, Classical and Quantum Gravity (2024). DOI: 10.1088/1361-6382/ad26aa.

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