2015 Herzberg Memorial Public Lecture: Faster than the Speed of Light by Prof. Miguel Alcubierre

2015 Herzberg Memorial Public Lecture, University of Alberta, Monday June 15, 2015, 7:30 P.M., Myer Horowitz Theatre

Miguel Alcubierre, Nuclear Sciences Institute, National Autonomous University of Mexico
Faster than the Speed of Light

ABSTRACT: In this talk I will give a short introduction to some of the basic concepts of Einstein’s special theory of relativity, which is at the basis of all of modern physics. In particular, I will concentrate on the concept of causality, and why causality implies that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum. I will later discuss some of the basic ideas behind Einstein’s other great theory, General Relativity, which is the modern theory of gravity and postulates that the geometry space-time is dynamic and the presence of large concentrations of mass and energy produce a “curvature” in space-time. I will then talk about how the curvature of space-time can be used in several ways to travel “faster than the speed of light” by distorting the geometry away from that of flat space. In particular, I will discuss the ideas behind the geometric model for a “warp drive”.

BIOGRAPHY: Prof. Miguel Alcubierre was born in Mexico City in 1964. He obtained his Physicist degree from the National University in Mexico (UNAM) in 1988, and a PhD in Physics from the University of Wales in 1994. He later worked for several years as an Adjunct Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany. Since 2002 he joined the Nuclear Sciences Institute at UNAM where he is now a Full Professor, and since June 2012 the Director. His research is in the area of numerical relativity, which is concerned with the computational simulation of astrophysical systems using Einstein’s theory of general relativity. In this area he has concentrated on the study of sources of gravitational waves, and particularly black hole collisions. He is author of more than 50 publications, as well as a textbook published by Oxford University Press.

HISTORY OF THE HERZBERG MEMORIAL PUBLIC LECTURE: In 2000, the CAP Council made a decision in to change the Sunday lecture given at its Annual Congress from a keynote lecture to a public lecture. The lecture would be named the “Herzberg Memorial Public Lecture” in honour of Nobel Laureate Dr. Gerhard Herzberg, longstanding member of the CAP, in recognition of Dr. Herzberg’s known desire to increase the awareness and appreciation of science amongst the public, particularly youth. Support for the Herzberg lecturer is provided, in part, through a bequest from Dr. Herzberg.

[ahmetakgun]

I remember seeing him on TV for the first time back in 94. I was like 7 and my mother said "Wow, this young physicist claims he's found a way to travel in space. Maybe he can take you with him." Now, after 17 years later I can't help but smile when I see him again and his works progressed.

[elleryjackson]

This is the first time I've been able to find a vid of him lecturing in English!

[DoctorMaxMoebius]

Nice talk, Professor Alcubierre. Judging by the all of 95 views (Nov 2017), which saddens me - you should be speaking to the world - at least we all agree it's Good!

[wbiro]

Cleared a few things up that no one else was able to explain (or failed to), such as the causality problem with FSL.

[quantumcat]

Thank you CAPhys for that great lecture.

[bigfund]

His presentation is so logical, a layman like me understood most of it(well, more than I expected, so watched to end w interest), just like how intuitive his idea of warp bubble was.
Lightning glimpse of solutions, that’s how we advance, now we need glimpse on how to attain anti-gravity, maybe?

[edgarperalta]

very informative, thanks for sharing, wish you had more viewers,

[arthurcabral]

The principals he laid out from classic physics are sound by logic, and the more recent ones fabulous. The work of Einstein, and such pioneers as Victor Schauberger remain controversial. Centripetal energy, and the implosion principal go hand in hand with the Tachikura theorem, and the mentioned Planks equations on vector field functions.

[davidsirmons]

The failing of the 3 time travel paradoxes is to take the stance that you, the observer or participant, are standing still, watching it go by. Further, these fail because of looking at the events from outside. If you receive a watch when you're a child, and you one day give it to someone, that's all you know, and it's the extent of your involvement. Time must be examined linearly to the point of incursion, then a new timeline forms, likely collapsing the initial post event timeline.

[waltermeerschaert]

Could you use an Alcubierre drive to counteract the tidal forces when orbiting a high-mass object? It would allow one to make observations of neutron stars and other object from closer than would otherwise be possible.

[ShaggyUltraLounge]

There was a guy, Don Hotson, who published a paper on negative energy which is the result of the full solution to the Dirac equation.

[vitaliybalin]

I support the creation of faster-than-light spacecraft because those spacecraft can be used to harvest mineral resources from comets and asteroids and bring them back to Earth very quickly. This would create better and more affordable technology on Earth to help end poverty and hunger. This is just one positive application of faster-than-light speed.

[kkv]

Hi, Ramanujan was way ahead for his time. He had postulated and made the problem statement s which even, the intellectual in the scientific sector are still perplexed!!!

[timg.]

*With regards to the Time Paradox's, there is ONE hypothesis that is not being introduced when facing the paradoxes of time. That would be IF we are living in a 'SIMULATION' that very well could present an argument where the paradoxes could in fact be violated. If we are living in an artificial, simulated reality, then the watch could therefore not really exist at all. The same way digital music or any other data for that matter exist within the digital realm. It's 'there' but not really there, and can be switched on or off or deleted entirely at will, instantly. Does anyone else agree/disagree with my theory? Let me know your thoughts! Cheers*

[nissimlevy]

I know one thing regarding this topic. If we ever create a warp drive that takes us from point A to point B in normal spacetime faster than a light beam then all the relativistic equations that contain the speed of light (c) are wrong. This is because these relativistic equations need to use the fastest speed at which information can be transmitted. If a faster than light warp drive were possible, that would mean that you would be able to transmit information faster than light from point A to point B in regular spacetime.

Now, you might say that in a warp drive faster than light speed is not achieved by moving through spacetime, but by having spacetime itself expand faster than light. But this does not remove the problem I explained. If you can be in a spacetime bubble that moves faster than light and then exit this bubble and reemerge into regular slower than light spacetime, you would be able to use this mechanism to transmit information faster than light from point A to point B in regular slower than light spacetime.

Imagine point A and point B in regular slower than light spacetime and then putting a warp drive in between these two points. So as far as points A and B are concerned, they don't know about this faster than light warp drive between them. All point B knows is that it received information from point A faster than light. And once this happens then the thought experiments that Einstein used to arrive at the relativistic equations can no longer be correct since these thought experiments assume that point B in regular spacetime cannot receive information from point A in regular spacetime faster than light.

The only way to circumvent this problem with a warp drive is by saying that a warp drive doesn't just alter the speed of space, it also alters the rate of time flow. So that when you leave point A and arrive at point B using a warp drive, it will be faster than light relative to your onboard time, but to observers outside your ship the time you took to arrive at point B would still be more than for a beam of light.

So this means that the "twin paradox" happens with the Alcubierre drive just as it does for speeds in regular spacetime that are very close to the speed of light. So why bother creating an Alcubierre Drive? Why not just achieve speeds in regular spacetime that are very close to the speed of light? There would be one reason to prefer an Alcubierre Drive, and that is if the energies required to create an Alcubierre Drive are much lower than it would take to accelerate very close to the speed of light.

[luisfelipe]

Energy only exists because there is something in opposite way to make it necessary to be won. Gravity has the opposite vector of the vector of light, if there was no gravity there would not be a need for energy or light to be linked to mass.Gravity is the limiting factor of light speed. Light speed limit is supposed to be the limit of the photon carrying still mass and still linked to energy, once gravity is nullified the speed of light can be increased either that or the gravity speed takes over and adds up to the speed of light causing a complex of gravity negative light speed increased.how cold can a a light source be frozen to? what is the differential or gradient of light cooled and light heated that it can get? gravity can also be understood as the rest inertia attached to all things that move at the expenditure of energy, the counter pendullum that makes the pendullum stop.A certain amount of particle could also exist that already consumed a certain amount of energy to remain traveling faster than the speed of light, and thus the pendullum amount of particles are already set, and they must loose their energy to some other particles so that the other particles can travel faster than light speed. either the gravitational pendulum has a high density energy of opposed vector concentrated as if the curvature of space is very sharp or the arms of the pendullum are represented by a very extense arm, acounting for few particles that consume the energy needed for the overcoming of the inertia or the extension of the arm can be represented by the speed with wich that arm can extent it self. In that consideration you can consider the speed of the arm to be equivalent to the speed times the mass divided by the number of particles to represent the total amount of force to be overcome.Understanding the pendullum as the curvature by the thought of einstein, then the shaprness of the curvature would represent the angle, sharp angle that would represent the bent arms of the pendulum, in which the speed to go arround the curvature would be faster as sharpest the angle uitl it can be considered twice the speed needed to go from a point a to point b, or maybe many numbers of sharped curves totaling a serrated ups and downs as many times as it needs to build the equivalent or total distance needed for the arm of pendullum to compensate by distance the amount of inertia needed to slow or steal energy needed to surpass the total energy needed, accounitng for the particles that already consumed the energy to travel faster than the speed of light, plus the length of the arm of the pendullum. When in a parabolic flight people start floating the airplane describes for the total amount of mass of the airplane a curvature and thus enters in the pendullum arm of gravity, the curvature of space and time it self diminishing the needed energy to surpass the inertia of rest that gravity represents thus people start floating arround but not the airplane, that describes its normal rounded air direction or way.

[Kendro]

Some people think about, consider or come up with these ideas while drinking their tea or taking a shower. I'm over here with a nose bleed trying to just grasp the concepts 😆

[physicstheoryofmetinaridasir]

I have predıcted with my theory and my formula 6.3 tımes greater than the speed of light, which is measured as if apparently inside of M87 black hole. I SUGGEST HAVING A LOOK AT THE FIRST PART OF MY THEORY AND MY FIRST FORMULA WHICH DETERMINES A LINEAR VELOCITY OF...6.3 TIMES GREATER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT, ETC. AND I TOLD WHERE OUR MEASURED CONSTANTS ARE ROOTED IN. We need to change the concept of matter that makes us imprisoned by all kinds of impressions and especially by accepting the vacuum illusion which it has been sitting comfortably in it

[ZFlyingVLover]

His idea of warp drive isn't mind blowing. The 'exotic' matter 'required' to initiate and sustain warp drive is mind blowing. That said i'm sure the solution isn't as complex or fantasy as 'exotic matter'.

[luisfelipe]

one question ! does earth produce gamma rays?