Warp Drive Collapse Should Generate Gravitational Waves, Theoretical Astrophysicists Claim
The principle idea behind a warp drive is that instead of exceeding the speed of light directly in a local reference frame, a ‘warp bubble’ could traverse distances faster than the speed of light — as measured by some distant observer — by contracting spacetime in front of it and expanding spacetime behind it
Despite originating in science fiction, warp drives have a concrete description in general relativity, with University of Wales astrophysicist Miguel Alcubierre first proposing a spacetime metric that supported faster-than-light travel.
Whilst there are numerous practical barriers to their implementation in real life, such as the requirement for an exotic type of matter with negative energy, computationally, one can simulate their evolution in time given an equation of state describing the matter.
In a new work, theoretical astrophysicists studied the signatures arising from a warp drive ‘containment failure.’
“Even though warp drives are purely theoretical, they have a well-defined description in Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and so numerical simulations allow us to explore the impact they might have on spacetime in the form of gravitational waves,” said Dr. Katy Clough, a researcher at Queen Mary University of London.
“The results are fascinating. The collapsing warp drive generates a distinct burst of gravitational waves, a ripple in spacetime that could be detectable by gravitational wave detectors that normally target black hole and neutron star mergers.”
“Unlike the chirps from merging astrophysical objects, this signal would be a short, high-frequency burst, and so current detectors wouldn’t pick it up.”
“However, future higher-frequency instruments might, and although no such instruments have yet been funded, the technology to build them exists.”
When I first read this I was thinking about Star Trek and how often the Enterprise exited Warp 8 and came to a screaming halt. So imagine my surprise when I thought about police radar (I’m qualified) and the search for warping aliens.
At the moment it appears that we can’t catch them anytime soon but for sure this looks to me like we can detect them (if true). Gravitational waves have their uses.
I’m not a physicist so I wouldn’t know for sure but it certainly sounds like radar on the 401 Hwy and catching the occasional moron if we got lucky.
Now we just have to figure out how we can mail them a ticket (LOL).