Wormholes, Warp Drives, Tractor Beam

Abstract: The solutions first encountered in studying general relativity (and its alternatives or modifications) are solutions for a given (or absent) source. A different approach is to reverse engineer the source terms: One posits a given metric and asks what source term this would require. This kind of solution is frequently encountered when the metric is supposed to “solve” a given problem, like circumventing relativity's speed limit by wormholes, warp drives or hypertubes. So far, all of these have ended up with “odd” source terms in the sense that they violate energy conditions. While the precise physical standing of energy conditions is complicated, their violation is usually still a warning sign. In this talk, I will present a general introduction to warp drives, a new modification resulting in tractor beams, and some discussion of energy conditions at large.

astrophysicscondensed mattergeneral relativity and quantum cosmologyhigh energy physicsmathematical physicsclassical physicsgeneral physics

Audience: researchers in the topic

Theoretical physics seminar @ Tartu