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Now All You Need is a Tiny Spaceship

Started by Recusant, December 10, 2021, 05:35:43 AM

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Recusant

Somehow I missed an interesting development when it appeared this past summer. A paper published in The European Physical Journal C proposes a real world space warp bubble. It's on the microscale (under 100 millionths of a meter or 40 thousandths of an inch) so nobody's boldly going on voyages across the galaxy just yet.

"DARPA Funded Researchers Accidentally Discover the World's First Warp Bubble" | The Debrief

QuoteWarp drive pioneer and former NASA warp drive specialist Dr. Harold G "Sonny" White has reported the discovery of an actual, real-world "Warp Bubble." And, according to White, this first of its kind breakthrough by his Limitless Space Institute (LSI) team sets a new starting point for those trying to manufacture a full-sized, warp-capable spacecraft.

In an interview, White added that "our detailed numerical analysis of our custom Casimir cavities helped us identify a real and manufacturable nano/microstructure that is predicted to generate a negative vacuum energy density such that it would manifest a real nanoscale warp bubble, not an analog, but the real thing." In other words, a warp bubble structure will manifest under these specific conditions. White cautioned that this does not mean we are near building a fully functioning warp drive, as much more science needs to be done.

"To be clear, our finding is not a warp bubble analog, it is a real, albeit humble and tiny, warp bubble," White told The Debrief, "hence the significance."

[Continues . . .]

The paper is open access:

"Worldline numerics applied to custom Casimir geometry generates unanticipated intersection with Alcubierre warp metric" | The European Physical Journal C

QuoteAbstract:

While conducting analysis related to a DARPA-funded project to evaluate possible structure of the energy density present in a Casimir cavity as predicted by the dynamic vacuum model, a micro/nano-scale structure has been discovered that predicts negative energy density distribution that closely matches requirements for the Alcubierre metric.

The simplest notional geometry being analyzed as part of the DARPA-funded work consists of a standard parallel plate Casimir cavity equipped with pillars arrayed along the cavity mid-plane with the purpose of detecting a transient electric field arising from vacuum polarization conjectured to occur along the midplane of the cavity. An analytic technique called worldline numerics was adapted to numerically assess vacuum response to the custom Casimir cavity, and these numerical analysis results were observed to be qualitatively quite similar to a two-dimensional representation of energy density requirements for the Alcubierre warp metric.

Subsequently, a toy model consisting of a 1 μm diameter sphere centrally located in a 4 μm diameter cylinder was analyzed to show a three-dimensional Casimir energy density that correlates well with the Alcubierre warp metric requirements. This qualitative correlation would suggest that chip-scale experiments might be explored to attempt to measure tiny signatures illustrative of the presence of the conjectured phenomenon: a real, albeit humble, warp bubble.

[¶ added. - R]
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Tank

If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Dark Lightning

I saw that over at phys.org the other day. Interesting reading!

Recusant

Quote from: Tank on December 10, 2021, 05:58:14 PM
What was the publication date?

The paper was published 31 July, 2021. Seems like the pop science sites that I browse are only now taking notice.
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Tank

Quote from: Recusant on December 10, 2021, 07:08:26 PM
Quote from: Tank on December 10, 2021, 05:58:14 PM
What was the publication date?

The paper was published 31 July, 2021. Seems like the pop science sites that I browse are only now taking notice.

Just checking it wasn't 1st April  ;D
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Ecurb Noselrub

It is best to conclude that nothing is impossible, and that if something is possible, mankind will eventually find it or do it, given enough time and resources, unless, of course, he destroys himself first.