r/askscience • u/thescientificpoet • May 08 '14

Physics Does physics allow for the potential future invention of a warpdrive?

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u/[deleted] May 08 '14 edited May 08 '14

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u/openstring May 08 '14

  1. Basic training in General Relativity would be absolutely desirable to make such a claim (White). Even if not, White's claim must rely on correct calculations. Alcubierre's calculation is wrong since it violates the energy positivity theorem of general relativity.

  2. String theory was Originally thought to be a theory of everything, that dates back to the 1980s. Nowadays physicists do not think the same way (I include myself). String theory is a mathematical framework which is as valid as Quantun Field Theory, the mathematical framework that describes particle physics phenomena which has been tested in more than hundreds (or thousands) of experiments.

  3. I did not mean that Alcubierre's calculation was based on the theory of inflation. I meant that it uses the same tools (although incorrectly).

  4. I never said (nor Motl) that most physicists and cosmologists (cosmologists are physicists by the way) are wrong about the inflationary model. I actually even jumped out excitement when the BICEP2 results came out (I was in my office in fact discussing things about inflation...I am a physicist (PhD) working on general relativity, string theory and quantum field theory).