Future Timeline

New study appearing in IOP Science.

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Analyzing warp drive spacetimes with Warp Factory

Published 5 April 2024 • © 2024 IOP Publishing Ltd

The field of warp research has been dominated by analytical methods to investigate potential solutions. However, these approaches often favor simple metric forms that facilitate analysis but ultimately limit the range of exploration of novel solutions. So far the proposed solutions have been unphysical, requiring energy condition violations and large energy requirements. To overcome the analytical limitations in warp research, we introduce Warp Factory: a numerical toolkit designed for modeling warp drive spacetimes. By leveraging numerical analysis, Warp Factory enables the examination of general warp drive geometries by evaluating the Einstein field equations and computing energy conditions. Furthermore, this comprehensive toolkit provides the determination of metric scalars and insightful visualizations in both 2D and 3D, offering a deeper understanding of metrics and their corresponding stress–energy tensors. The paper delves into the methodology employed by Warp Factory in evaluating the physicality of warp drive spacetimes and highlights its application in assessing commonly modeled warp drive metrics. By leveraging the capabilities of Warp Factory, we aim to further warp drive research and hopefully bring us closer to realizing physically achievable warp drives.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1 ... 382/ad2e42

This type of technology has always fascinated me for years and what the future may hold with this technology and beyond.

Model suggests subluminal warp drives may be possible
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-subluminal-warp.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A team of physicists from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the Advanced Propulsion Laboratory at Applied Physics, in New York, has developed a model that shows it might be possible to create a subluminal warp drive.

In their paper published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, the group describes the physics behind their approach and why they believe it shows that warp drives may not have to be relegated to science fiction stories.

Warp drives, made famous by the television series "Star Trek," are imagined engines that could push vehicles through space at speeds that are currently impossible—perhaps even at the speed of light.