Warp-drives are solutions of general relativity widely considered unphysical due to high negative energy requirements. Most research has focused on macroscopic solutions towards the goal of interstellar travel but faster than light communications is far more practical. The warping effect would only need to be large enough to send through particles or laser communication.
The total negative energy requirements gets smaller than the energy contained in a lightning bolt, more than 70 orders of magnitude less than the original Alcubierre warp drive. This could conceivably be generated with current technology by scaling up Casimir-like apparatuses. Researchers describe a tubular distribution of externally-generated negative energy which addresses the major issues plaguing macroscopic warp-drives and propose a concrete mechanism to accelerate and decelerate a warp. A byproduct of warp deceleration is the emission of a ray of high-energy particles. The detection of such particles could be used as the backbone of a faster-than-light communication device, reminiscent of the hyperwave of science fiction, even though significant engineering challenges remain to achieve practical communication.
* The Casimir effect is real. The Casimir effect is a nanoscale phenomenon that arises from quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic
vacuum. It has been observed experimentally many times. In 1996, American physicist Steven Lamoreaux measured the force for the first time, and the results agreed with the theory to within 5 percent.
* The FTL communication warp tube could speed up photonic communication on a computer chip. The expensive FTL communication pipe could be used to speed up communication between supercomputers. These kinds of applications could have billions of dollar to trillions of dollars in value
* IF this FTL communication could be made to work at ANY level, it changes what we know and believe is possible with physics.
It is likely that this research received $50,000 to 100,000 of grants from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (MOD).
Superluminal communication or even fast subluminal communication are natural applications for the hyperwave. The feasibility of long distance communication, perhaps even at interplanetary or interstellar distance, will depend on the feasibility of keeping energy requirements low by constructing devices able to generate short burst of energy. On a smaller scale, it is tantalizing to consider the fabrication of microchips capable of superluminal computing. Even though this work outlines some positive results towards establishing the physics of warp drive spacetimes, some major “engineering” issues do remain.
1. He discussed how hyperwaves total negative energy requirements can be up to 70 orders of magnitude less stringent than the original Alcubierre drives, but he did not discuss the magnitude of the energy density itself.
