Technol Rep Tohoku Univ: GENERATION OF ANTI-GRAVITY ...

Emerging Possibilities for Space Propulsion Breakthroughs
A theory about "warp drive": Using the
formalism of general relativity, it has been
shown that faster than light travel may be
possible (ref 7). All you need to do is contract
spacetime in front of your ship and expand
spacetime behind your ship. This "warped"
space and the region within it would propel
itself "with an arbitrarily large speed" (ref 7).
Observers outside this "warp" would see it
move faster than the speed of light. Observers
inside this "warp" would feel no acceleration
as they zip along at warp speed.
So what's the catch? First, to expand
spacetime behind the ship you'll need matter
having a negative energy density like negative
mass, and lots of it too. It is unknown in
physics whether negative mass or negative
energy densities can exist. Classical physics
tends toward a "no," while quantum physics
leans to a "maybe, yes." Second, you'll need
equal amounts of positive energy density
matter, positive mass, to contract spacetime in
front of the ship. Third, you'll need a way to
control this effect to turn it on and off at will.
And lastly, there is the debate about whether
this whole "warp" would indeed move faster
than the speed of light. To address this
speeding issue, the theory draws on the
"inflationary universe" perspective. The idea
goes something like this: Even though lightspeed
is a limit within spacetime, the rate at
which spacetime itself can expand or contract
is an open issue. Back during the early
moments of the Big Bang, spacetime expands
faster than the speed of light. So if spacetime
can expand faster than the speed of light
during the Big Bang, why not for our warp
drive? Just prior to the publication of the above
theory, there was a workshop held at JPL to
examine the possibilities for faster-than-light
travel (ref 8). Wormholes, tachyons, and
alternate dimensions were just some of the
topics examined. The conclusions from this
informal two-day workshop are as follows: (1)
Faster-than-light travel is beyond our current
horizons. Not only is the physics inadequately
developed, but this physics is not oriented
toward space propulsion or toward laboratory
scale experiments.
(2) Causality violations (where effect precedes
cause) are unavoidable if faster-than-light
travel is possible, but it is uncertain whether
causality violations are themselves physically
prohibited.
(3) A few experimental approaches are feasible
to address the science associated with fasterthan-light
travel, including: (a) Search for
evidence of wormholes using astronomical
observations: look for a group of co-moving
stars or for the visual distortions indicative of a
negative mass hole entrance.
(b) Measure the velocity of light inside a
Casimir cavity (between closely spaced
conductive plates) to search for evidence of
negative space energy. This pertains to
wormholes, tachyons, and the negative energy
density issue.
(c) Resolve the rest mass issue of the Neutrino,
determining whether the unconfirmed
experimental evidence of imaginary mass is
genuine.
(d) Study cosmic rays above the atmosphere,
using scattering targets of know
composition to look for characteristic evidence
of tachyons and more general particle
physics events.
New ways to think of inertia and gravity: As
mentioned earlier, the ideal interstellar drive
would have the ability to manipulate the
connection between mass and spacetime. One
approach is to look for ways to use
electromagnetism, a phenomenon for which
we are technologically proficient, to control
inertial or gravitational forces. It is known that
gravity and electromagnetism are coupled
phenomena. In the formalism of general
relativity this coupling is described in terms of
how mass warps the spacetime against which
electromagnetism is measured. In simple
terms this has the consequence that gravity
appears to bend light, red-shift light and slow
time. These observations and the general
relativistic formalism that describes them have
been confirmed (ref 9, 10). Although gravity's
2 Venik’s Aviation – www.aeronautics.ru; 31.10.2002