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Superluminal travel requires negative energies

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arxiv gr-qc/9805003 v2 pith:G6GXYJMB submitted 1998-05-01 gr-qc

classification gr-qc
keywords travelsuperluminalrequiresdefinitionfaster-than-lightnegativepathviolation
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I investigate the relationship between faster-than-light travel and weak-energy-condition violation, i.e., negative energy densities. In a general spacetime it is difficult to define faster-than-light travel, and I give an example of a metric which appears to allow superluminal travel, but in fact is just flat space. To avoid such difficulties, I propose a definition of superluminal travel which requires that the path to be traveled reach a destination surface at an earlier time than any neighboring path. With this definition (and assuming the generic condition) I prove that superluminal travel requires weak-energy-condition violation.

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Cited by 2 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Warp Drive in a De Sitter Universe

    gr-qc 2025-02 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A warp bubble moving with the Hubble flow in de Sitter space can have non-negative Eulerian energy density and satisfy averaged energy conditions.

  2. The Warp Drive: Superluminal Travel within General Relativity

    gr-qc 2025-08 reject novelty 3.0 of 10

    Coupled fluid sources to the Alcubierre warp drive metric yield Einstein equation solutions, some satisfying energy conditions, but none forming a localized warp bubble.

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