Quantum effects in the Alcubierre warp drive spacetime

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum effects in the Alcubierre warp drive spacetime, revealing divergences in stress-energy at superluminal speeds, which challenge the feasibility of warp drives.

Contribution

It provides a quantum field analysis of warp drive spacetime, highlighting potential physical limitations due to quantum effects.

Findings

Stress-energy tensor diverges at superluminal speeds

Warp drive behavior may be physically unfeasible due to quantum effects

Quantum effects could prevent the engineering of warp drives in four dimensions

Abstract

The expectation value of the stress-energy tensor of a free conformally invariant scalar field is computed in a two-dimensional reduction of the Alcubierre ``warp drive'' spacetime. The stress-energy is found to diverge if the apparent velocity of the spaceship exceeds the speed of light. If such behavior occurs in four dimensions, then it appears implausible that ``warp drive'' behavior in a spacetime could be engineered, even by an arbitrarily advanced civilization.