Alcubierre drive

The Alcubierre metric, also known as the Alcubierre drive or warp drive, is a speculative mathematical model of a spacetime exhibiting some features reminiscent of the fictional faster than the speed of light warp drive from Star Trek; hence the name. The Alcubierre Drive is often called a 'solution' of Einstein's field equations in general relativity, but this is inaccurate; see Alcubierre metric.

Related Topics:
Faster than the speed of light - Warp drive - Star Trek - Einstein's field equation - General relativity - Alcubierre metric

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed a method of stretching space in a wave, causing the space "ahead" of a spacecraft to contract along the axis the spacecraft wishes to travel in and the space "behind" it to expand. The ship would ride this wave inside a region, known as a "warp bubble", of flat space. Since the ship is not actually moving within this bubble, but rather being carried along as the region itself moves, conventional relativistic effects do not apply. There is no known way to induce such a wave, however, or to leave it once started; the Alcubierre drive remains a theoretical concept at this time.

Related Topics:
Physicist - Miguel Alcubierre - Relativistic

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

__TOC__

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~