Solitons in space--time capable of transporting time-like observers at superluminal speeds have long been tied to violations of the weak, strong, and dominant energy conditions of general relativity. The negative-energy sources required for these solitons must be created through energy-intensive uncertainty principle processes as no such classical source is known in particle physics. This paper overcomes this barrier by constructing a class of soliton solutions that are capable of superluminal motion and sourced by purely positive energy densities. The solitons are also shown to be capable of being sourced from the stress-energy of a conducting plasma and classical electromagnetic fields. This is the first example of hyper-fast solitons resulting from known and familiar sources, reopening the discussion of superluminal mechanisms rooted in conventional physics.
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EDIT: The following comment was enhanced (gloriously so, actually) by ChatGPT4:
As someone with a background in both physics and psychology, I appreciate your skepticism. However, it's crucial to recognize that human knowledge and imagination are often the limiting factors in our understanding of the universe.
The Alcubierre Warp Drive, for example, is a theoretically plausible solution to surmounting intergalactic distances in normal lifetimes, although it remains practically impossible for now: https://phys.org/news/2017-01-alcubierre-warp.html. A recent paper proposes an update using solitons: https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.07125. Additionally, research on wormholes, such…
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as Kip Thorne's work on traversable wormholes, highlights another potential avenue for interstellar travel, despite the current theoretical and practical limitations.
Throughout history, many seemingly insurmountable barriers have been overcome through the power of imagination and human innovation. For example:
1. Lord Kelvin, a prominent physicist, claimed that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible, but the Wright brothers proved otherwise with the first successful airplane flight in 1903.
2. Ernest Rutherford, the father of nuclear physics, once declared that extracting energy from atoms was "moonshine" – yet nuclear power plants are now a reality.
3. The concept of continental drift, proposed by Alfred Wegener, was initially ridiculed, but it eventually led to the widely accepted theory of plate tectonics.
These examples demonstrate how scientific progress often hinges on the ability to challenge prevailing beliefs and imagine new possibilities. Our current understanding of the universe is based on mental models that have evolved over time and will continue to change. Newtonian physics, once considered the gold standard, was later expanded upon by the revolutionary theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, paving the way for previously "impossible" phenomena.
At the American Physical Society's Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (DAMOP) meeting, for instance, researchers discuss groundbreaking experiments and theories that would have been considered absurd just decades ago. Quantum entanglement, superposition, and teleportation, which were once mere theoretical constructs, are now supported by empirical evidence and even employed in emerging technologies like quantum computing.
In conclusion, while skepticism is a healthy part of the scientific process, it's essential not to dismiss the potential for extraterrestrial intelligence or advanced interstellar travel based solely on our current understanding of the universe. Our collective imagination and the relentless pursuit of knowledge have historically expanded the boundaries of what was once considered impossible, and there's no reason to believe this trend will cease.
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord William Thomson Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.
Edit: See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27816225 for a discussion of the paper that launched this whole topic.
Edit 2: The actual paper you want is this one by the author of OP, the first one is referring back to this: https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.07125
There is another paper on warp drives that came out around the same time, Breaking the Warp Barrier: Hyper-Fast Solitons in Einstein-Maxwell-Plasma Theory [0].
[0]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.07125
I presently have no time to get into GR, but surely wish I did. Here instead of comment I offer two papers:
Erik Lentz (underlying the work in the press release here):
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.07125.pdf
And similar seeming work by another group at something called the “advanced propulsion lab” (who are they?)
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2102.06824.pdf
It’s interesting that they both claim positive energy solutions that, eh hem, do the trick.
In honor of Alan Turing's hundredth birthday, I unwisely set out some thoughts about one of Turing's obsessions throughout his life, the question of physics and free will.