It’s theoretically possible to travel faster than light using the warp drives seen in ‘Star Trek’

Imagine surpassing the speed of light, a concept once confined to the realm of science fiction, now a theoretical possibility. Explore the fascinating world of warp drives, as popularized by 'Star Trek', and the scientific advancements that could make this dream a reality.

Faster than light travel is the only way humans could ever get to other stars in a reasonable amount of time

But so far, faster-than-light travel is possible only in science fiction

• In Issac Asimov’s Foundation series, humanity can travel from planet to planet, star to star or across the universe using jump drives
• Warp drives are theoretically possible if still far-fetched technology

Sci-fi future?

Recent papers provide solutions that seem to bring warp drives closer to reality

• Bobrick and Martire realized that by modifying spacetime within the bubble in a certain way, they could remove the need to use negative energy
• This solution, though, does not produce a warp drive that can go faster than light
• Independently, Lentz also proposed a solution that does not require negative energy

Compression and Expansion

Current understanding of spacetime comes from Einstein’s theory of General Relativity

• Space and time are fused and nothing can travel faster than the speed of light
• General relativity also describes how mass and energy warp spacetime – hefty objects like stars and black holes curve spacetime around them
• “Star Trek” took this idea and named it the warp drive
• Miguel Alcubierre, a Mexican theoretical physicist, showed that compressing spacetime in front of the spaceship while expanding it behind was mathematically possible
• Unfortunately, it requires negative energy or negative mass

Negative energy problem

To create negative energy, a warp drive would use a huge amount of mass to create an imbalance between particles and antiparticles.

• If an electron and an antielectron appear near the warp drive, one of the particles would get trapped by the mass and this results in an imbalance. This imbalance results in negative energy density.
• A warp drive with a 100-meter bubble would require the mass of the entire universe.

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