What is Warp drive and How is works ?

• Warp Drive 

A warp drive is theoretical superluminal spacecraft propulsion system in many science fiction works, most notably " Star Trek ". A spacecraft equipped with warp drive may travel at speed greater than that of light by many orders of magnitude. 

• How it works ?

Imagine the distance between two points is 10 meters. If you are standing at point A and can travel 1 m/sec, it would take 10 seconds to get to point B. 

Now,  let us say you could somehow compress the space between you and point B so that the interval is now just 1 meter. Then moving through space time at speed of 1 m/sec you would be able to reach point B in about 1 second

In theory, this approach does not contradict the laws of relativity since you are not moving faster than light in space around you.

Negative energy 

Alcubierre warp drive would work by creating a bubble of flat spacetime around the spaceship and curving the distance around that bubble to reduce distance.

The warp drive would require either negative mass - a theorised type of matter or negative energy. Physicists has never observed negative mass, so that leaves negative energy as the only option.

But for a warp drive to generate enough negative energy, you would need a lot of matter. Alcubierre showed that warp drive with a 100-meter bubble would require the mass of the entire visible universe.

• How negative energy formed in the universe ?

Imagine that a man wants to build a hill on a flat piece of land. The hill represents our Universe. He digs a hole in the ground and uses that soil to make his hill. The stuff that was in the hole has now become the hill.

This is what happened at the beginning of the universe. When big bang produced a massive amount of positive energy, it simultaneously produced same amount of negative energy, perfectly balanced just as law of nature.

Conclusion 

Proxima Centauri here we come. 

In the next blog we'll be talking about Quantum Entanglement.

Do you think Warp Drive can be the effective way for travelling in space ?.