For decades we dreamed of visiting other stellar systems. There is only one problem: they are so far away, with conventional spaceflights it would take tens of thousands of years to reach even the nearest.
Physicists are not the type of people who give up easily. Give them an impossible dream and they will give you a hypothetical and amazing way to make it come true. May be.
In a new study by physicist Erik Lentz of the University of Göttingen in Germany, we may have a viable solution to the dilemma and it could be more feasible than other possible warp impulses.
This is an area that attracts many bright ideas, each offering a different approach to solving the travel puzzle faster than light: getting a means to send something into space at superluminal speeds.
Hypothetical travel times to Proxima Centauri, the Sun’s best-known star. (E. Lentz)
However, there are some issues with this notion. Within conventional physics, according to Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity, there is no real way to reach or exceed the speed of light, which we would need for any trip measured in light years.
This has not stopped physicists from trying to break this universal speed limit.
While passing matter beyond the speed of light will always be a big no, space-time itself does not have this rule. In fact, the ends of the Universe are already spreading faster than their light could expect to match.
To bend a small space bubble in a similar way for transport purposes, we would have to solve the relativity equations to create an energy density below the vacuum of space. Although this type of negative energy occurs on a quantum scale, accumulating enough in the form of “negative mass” remains an area for exotic physics.
In addition to facilitating other types of abstract possibilities, such as wormholes and time travel, negative energy could help feed what is known as the Alcubierre warp unit.
This speculative concept would use negative energy principles to deform space around a hypothetical space probe, allowing it to travel effectively faster than light without defying traditional physical laws, except for the reasons explained. previously, we can’t wait to provide such a fantastic fuel source to begin with.
But what if it were somehow possible to achieve faster-than-light journeys that maintain faith in Einstein’s relativity without the need for any kind of exotic physics that physicists have never seen?
Artistic print of different spaceship designs in “warp bubbles”. (E. Lentz)
In his new work, Lentz proposes a way to do this, thanks to what he calls a new class of hyper-fast solitons: a kind of wave that maintains its shape and energy as it moves at a constant speed (and in this case, a speed faster than light).
According to Lentz’s theoretical calculations, these hyper-fast soliton solutions can exist within general relativity and come exclusively from positive energy densities, meaning that there is no need to consider exotic sources of negative energy density that do not yet exist. have been verified.
With sufficient energy, the configurations of these solitons could function as “warp bubbles,” capable of superluminal motion, and theoretically allowing an object to pass through space-time while being protected from the forces of extreme sea.
It’s an impressive feat of theoretical gymnastics, though the amount of energy required means that this warp unit is only a hypothetical possibility for now.
“The energy required for this unit to travel at the speed of light that encompasses a 100-meter-radius spacecraft is on the order of hundreds of times the mass of the planet Jupiter,” Lentz says.
“The energy savings would have to be drastic, about 30 orders of magnitude to fit within today’s modern nuclear fission reactors.”
Although Lentz’s study claims to be the first known solution of its kind, his article has arrived almost exactly at the same time as another recent analysis, published just this month, which also proposes an alternative model for a unit. of physically possible warp that do not require negative energy to function.
Now both teams are in contact, Lentz says, and the researcher intends to share their data more so other scientists can explore their numbers. In addition, Lentz will explain his research in a week’s time, in a live YouTube presentation on March 19th.
There are still a lot of puzzles to solve, but the free flow of such ideas remains our best hope of ever having a chance to visit those distant, twinkling stars.
“This work has moved the problem of faster-than-light travel one step closer to theoretical research in fundamental physics and closer to engineering,” says Lentz.
“The next step is to figure out how to reduce the astronomical amount of energy needed within the scope of current technologies, such as a large modern nuclear fission power plant. Then we can talk about building the first prototypes.”
The findings are reported in Classical and quantum gravity.