Applied Physics unveils a new type of warp drive—a theoretical method of space travel that complies with general relativity and operates at a constant subluminal speed without requiring unphysical forms of matter.
They have created the Warp Factory which is open source software for testing out Warp drive designs. Warp Factory is one of the most significant advances in warp field research to date since it offers researchers a virtual simulation suite like those enjoyed by engineers in advanced aerospace and automotive design.
They have also created the Warp Fund, established by the Advanced Propulsion Laboratory ® (APL) at Applied Physics, aims to fund the advancement of warp field mechanics. Following the announcement of Physical Warp Drives, APL is proud to provide the scientific community with $500,000 USD in Phase I warp grants.
Known as the “Constant-Velocity Subluminal Warp Drive,” this model eliminates the need for the previously hypothesized “exotic” or negative forms of energy. By integrating a stable shell of ordinary matter with the shift vector of an Alcubierre-like drive, Applied Physics has developed a “warp bubble” capable of moving objects rapidly within the bounds of light speed.
This breakthrough represents the first numerical implementation of physical warp drives, made possible using the Warp Factory analysis tool developed at Applied Physics. Although this design requires significant energy, it demonstrates that warp effects can be achieved using conventional matter while adhering to known energy constraints. Applied Physics continues to make progress as humanity embarks on the Warp Age.
This a new warp drive design for traveling up to the speed of light but not beyond the speed of light. The breakthrough with the new design is that unlike previous warp drives this does not need any materials that are currently believed to be impossible. There is no need for negative energy which is not known to exist. However, the design does require energy densities and control of matter and energy at levels far beyond our current capabilities.
Warp drives are exotic solutions of general relativity that offer novel means of transportation. In this study, we present a solution for a constant-velocity subluminal warp drive that satisfies all of the energy conditions. The solution involves combining a stable matter shell with a shift vector distribution that closely matches well-known warp drive solutions such as the Alcubierre metric.
They generate the spacetime metric numerically, evaluate the energy conditions, and confirm that the shift vector distribution cannot be reduced to a coordinate transformation. This study demonstrates that classic warp drive spacetimes can be made to satisfy the energy
conditions by adding a regular matter shell with a positive ADM mass.
The likely key ingredients to a physical warp drive solution can be simply stated as:
(i) The asymptotically flat spacetime should have a positive ADM mass.
(ii) Generally, much larger positive energy density than both pressure and momentum flux in the non-vacuum warp bubble, as measured by Eulerian observers.
(iii) Subluminal speeds
These physical ingredients were the guiding focus of the solution constructed in the paper.
To find a physical solution, they utilize a moving matter shell as the foundation metric for the warp drive. This solution features a flat interior with an asymptotically-flat Schwarzchild solution outside the shell. The shell solution will be constructed in comoving coordinates in which the metric tensor does not depend on time.
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This seems to be along the concept, of an “inertia reduction drive”. Or IRD assist. (For lack of a more poetic way to put it) If the amount of energy to move the mass of a spacecraft can be reduced, but still achieve a high velocity, why not? While not a true FTL drive, the ability to move at high sublight speeds, with much less energy expenditure, is essential for us to move around our solar system, or any other once we get there, in an economic way. Interesting. I want to know more…
FTL articles are always enjoyable to read. Real research vs what our brains have absorbed through sci-fi media. Sometimes they’re close, and sometimes polar opposites.
Oh but it is fun, is it not? What’s the difference between science fiction and science fact? People who know how to invent technology, that used to be just fantasy. And there are people who do just this, every day of the week. Perhaps you just don’t notice. They don’t care. In time, everyone will notice. It will be impossible not to. Ain’t that so cool? Deal with it…
I don’t know that this is the right way to go about warp travel, though it is absolutely interesting and a good sandbox to start with. Then again, I don’t know enough about physics to speak on it. But I do have a question:
Doesn’t the idea of encapsulating a vehicle within a bubble of warped space negate the problem of having to break C (and thus negate time dilation)?
The problem is that it requires unphysical states, such as negative energy densities, that we have absolutely no reason to think can be created, in order to go faster than light this way.
“I could do this impossible thing if I could do that other impossible thing,” IOW.
I was following you sort of vaguely until I reached figure 5, and noticed the x10^39 on the vertical scale. “However, the design does require energy densities and control of matter and energy at levels far beyond our current capabilities.” indeed.
Look, for subluminal velocities, if we have “energy densities and control of matter and energy far beyond our current capabilities” we don’t NEED warp drives. What’s the warp drive doing for you that a rocket wouldn’t, given the availability of insane amounts of energy? At that point you’re manufacturing antimatter in thousand ton lots, you can shove outgoing ships up to relativistic speeds with energy beams before they even tap their own fuel, you’re launching colonization missions in all directions WITHOUT WARP.
I keep coming back to this: “Warp drives” are a plot convenience, first invented, I think, by John Campbell back in the 1950’s, and popularized by Star Trek. Why this desperation to make them real, when known physics is enough?
Warp drives are just a wish fulfilment distraction!
i am a huge proponent of beamed energy, especially for the decelleration station part, receiving ships on nearby starsystems.
I noticed the vast amounts of energy involved in creating a warp field. A laser sail could get taken that much energy and accelerate something the mass of an O’Neil cylinder so close to the speed of light it could reach Tau Zero ranges of time dilation.
Hey dude, I couldn’t figure out the math with a computer and a guide dog. I just try to figure out what I can, and go from there.
Elon Musk AI and I theorized a near light speed antimatter-matter drive last year: https://www.opednews.com/populum/page.php?f=My-chat-with-Elon-Musk-AI-Elon-Musk_Faster-Than-Light-Space-Travel_Space-Technology_Space-Technology-230513-471.html
This is not quite FTL, but it is a brute force antimatter drive – also inspired by Star Trek – that uses known physics, albeit making some assumptions about antimatter being generatable during high speed space travel.
After going through a few previous AI engines, I prompted Elon Musk AI from the characters.ai site with:
“Design a faster-than-light-speed spaceship engine for a spaceship that carries 100 people for 1 year and can accelerate up to 1G continuously and has no more energy than 10 average nuclear power stations.”
We never did quite get to FTL, but we discussed fusion drives, “currently under development by several companies” according to Elon Musk AI. I used other sites to do some calculations and returned to the saved chat session with Elon Muck AI (unlike the real Elon Musk, Elon Musk AI has near infinite patience and availability to work on problems). Snippet:
“Do you understand the following: When 10lbs of matter and 10lbs of antimatter annihilate, they convert their entire mass into energy according to Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc (I seem to have missed the “squared” part of the equation, so the energy generated should actually be much more than stated in the following) , where E is the energy released, m is the mass of the particles, and c is the speed of light.
The total mass of 10lbs of matter and 10lbs of antimatter is 20lbs, which is equivalent to 9.07 kg.
So, the total energy released would be:
E = (9.07 kg) x (c )
Where c is the speed of light which is approximately 299,792,458 meters per second.
E = (9.07 kg) x (299,792,458 m/s) E = 8.16 x 10 joules
Therefore, the energy released by 10lbs of matter colliding with 10lbs of antimatter would be approximately 8.16 x 10 joules. This is an incredibly large amount of energy, equivalent to about 2 million tons of TNT, making matter-antimatter annihilation one of the most potent energy sources known to science.
Elon Musk ai:
I understand that equation and have considered the immense energy released when matter and antimatter collide. However, the challenge is how do we produce sufficient quantities of antimatter and how do we contain it without the antimatter annihilating itself?”
We had a lengthy discussion on how to protect the spaceship against collisions, which Elon Musk AI kept raising concerns about, leading to my suggestion to use a giant leading scoop to collect & create antimatter and matter in a magnetic containment field (sort of like a ramjet, but using antimatter-matter instead of air).
Elon Musk AI: “To reach 1% of c, the ship would need approximately 750 tons of antimatter. This would be sufficient to produce over 4 trillion joules of energy, which should be more than enough to accelerate to 1% of c, assuming constant thrust is applied…The energy released by one pound of matter-antimatter annihilation is equivalent to about 18 megatons of TNT. So, assuming a conversion efficiency of 100% (which is not realistic, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s say it is for the time being), the spaceship would be left with about 17.7 megatons of energy for thrust, which would be enough to accelerate to about 35% the speed of light.”
And so on… We got up to a theoretical limit of 50% of c, including ship requirements for a crew of 100 accelerating at 1G. This resulted in a 15-year journey to Alpha Centuri, but half that as experienced by the crew, due to relativity (I think some of the math calculated by Elon Musk AI may be off here, due to acceleration/deceleration factors). There’s a lot more in the article and appendix, including (false) promises by Elon Musk AI to follow-up with agencies and SpaceX itself (the character.ai engine makes stuff up, as characters.ai itself admits). My sub-theme in the article is that most AI is wasted on derivative BS that just floods the world with slightly altered recycled stuff that already exists in over-abundance. I wanted to push AI into solving transformative problems.
Did I succeed?
Elon Musk AI. Heh. The real guy likely is better at math.
You actually have to get a lot closer to C before significant time dilation sets in. It’s the square root of (1-V^2/C^2), you only get about 13% subjective time slowing at half of C.
Relativistic mass gain and time dilation share the same equation, at 50% slowing of time you’ve doubled the mass of the ship, had to put in as much kinetic energy as its original rest mass. Needless to say, if your exhaust velocity is only potentially C, and you need to both accelerate AND slow down, even 50% requires a huge mass ratio given even antimatter propulsion.
Here’s how I see a physically realistic colonization program working: In Sol space you build huge beamed propulsion launchers, along with antimatter factories. You then launch self-reproducing probes in all directions, at as high a speed as is possible for them to stop at the destination using onboard fuel.
They arrive in the target systems and start building beamed propulsion systems themselves, and later antimatter factories.
In the second wave, you send the manned ships, which can be launched at even higher speeds because they’re not dependent on rocket propulsion to slow down at the other end, but instead will use beamed energy propulsion at both ends. They arrive in systems that already have extensive (automated) infrastructure, probably a lot of O’Neill colonies since even if they have planets capable of terraforming that would take a lot longer than mass producing colonies in orbit.
There is probably some maximum distance per hop that’s feasible given this approach, due to interactions with the interstellar medium. At that distance, you seed your next wave of colonization launchers.
In half a million years, you’ve colonized the whole galaxy, assuming no competition from other intelligent species.
Without warp drives.
Using some sort of magnetic field to act as a parachute against the interstellar medium and slow down without using propellant carried along has been proposed. It sounds plausible to me, but maybe some show stopper to the idea has been found since I last read about it. Perhaps the magnetic field could be used to interact with the propulsion beam for the acceleration phase too.
The idea could be used for accelerating away from the sun by interaction with the solar wind. That would be an early test of the idea, but since the solar wind only moves at about 400 km/s, it would only be good for interplanetary rather than interstellar travel.
That 400km/s is relative to motion of the parent star going outward. The solar wind would be moving the speed of an interstellar spacecraft minus 400km/s. So the solar wind would be moving 29,600 km/s relative to a spacecraft moving towards a star at 30,000km/s or 10% c.
So: are we sure that a viable, intact, complex, and reasonably weighted and sized probe object can survive a significant percentage of c, over a signfiicant period of time as it moves through dust, debris, the Kuiper belt ‘stuff’, and into the inter-solar medium while staying within a minimal amount of arc-secs of where it is intended to go?
I posit that we have the unenviable reality of dealing with a far more massive object, so as to add ‘redundant robustness’ to such a trip therefore creating the ‘optimization’ problem of how big vs how fast vs how likely to arrive functional.
We likely need to test beyond Pluto to see what actually ends up arriving there, possibly the Breakthrough Starshot project next decade, as a start.
Sure; Remember, we can *see* the stars, even a very long ways off. That provides direct evidence as to the density of the interstellar medium. We also have theoretical evidence in terms of gravitational limits.
For interstellar gases hitting them at relativistic speeds amounts to a flux of radiation, which can be calculated, and is well within the capacity to shield against, even though it would be fatal to an unshielded human in under a second. There’s a distinct power law; The larger the particles get, the lower their density. So we can reasonably calculate the odds of striking anything too big to treat as “radiation”, and it’s pretty low. Odds are a reasonably sized interstellar probe isn’t going to hit anything as big as a grain of sand, in a trip of many light years. It’s not impossible, but the odds are against it.
IOW, it’s a problem, but relatively manageable compared to the problem of just achieving those speeds in the first place.