{"id":127847,"date":"2021-09-19T10:27:10","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T17:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/breaking-the-warp-barrier-for-faster-than-light-travel"},"modified":"2021-09-19T10:27:10","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T17:27:10","slug":"breaking-the-warp-barrier-for-faster-than-light-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/breaking-the-warp-barrier-for-faster-than-light-travel","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the warp barrier for faster-than-light travel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/breaking-the-warp-barrier-for-faster-than-light-travel2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If travel to distant stars within an individual\u2019s lifetime is going to be possible, a means of faster-than-light propulsion will have to be found. To date, even recent research about superluminal (faster-than-light) transport based on Einstein\u2019s theory of general relativity would require vast amounts of hypothetical particles and states of matter that have \u201cexotic\u201d physical properties such as negative energy density. This type of matter either cannot currently be found or cannot be manufactured in viable quantities. In contrast, new research carried out at the University of G\u00f6ttingen gets around this problem by constructing a new class of hyper-fast \u2018solitons\u2019 using sources with only positive energies that can enable travel at any speed. This reignites debate about the possibility of faster-than-light travel based on conventional physics. The research is published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.<\/p>\n<p>The author of the paper, Dr Erik Lentz, analysed existing research and discovered gaps in previous \u2018warp drive\u2019 studies. Lentz noticed that there existed yet-to-be explored configurations of space-time curvature organized into \u2018solitons\u2019 that have the potential to solve the puzzle while being physically viable. A soliton \u2014 in this context also informally referred to as a \u2018warp bubble\u2019 \u2014 is a compact wave that maintains its shape and moves at constant velocity. Lentz derived the Einstein equations for unexplored soliton configurations (where the space-time metric\u2019s shift vector components obey a hyperbolic relation), finding that the altered space-time geometries could be formed in a way that worked even with conventional energy sources. In essence, the new method uses the very structure of space and time arranged in a soliton to provide a solution to faster-than-light travel, which \u2014 unlike other research \u2014 would only need sources with positive energy densities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If travel to distant stars within an individual\u2019s lifetime is going to be possible, a means of faster-than-light propulsion will have to be found. To date, even recent research about superluminal (faster-than-light) transport based on Einstein\u2019s theory of general relativity would require vast amounts of hypothetical particles and states of matter that have \u201cexotic\u201d physical [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,48,1617,1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-science","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}