THE WORLD’S FIRST WARP BUBBLE FINALLY CREATED?

[beecee]

Just found this. 

https://thedebrief.org/darpa-funded-researchers-accidentally-create-the-worlds-first-warp-bubble

DARPA FUNDED RESEARCHERS ACCIDENTALLY CREATE THE WORLD’S FIRST WARP BUBBLE:

Warp drive pioneer and former NASA warp drive specialist Dr. Harold G “Sonny” White has reported the successful manifestation 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.

“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, quickly dispensing with the notion that this is anything other than the creation of an actual, real-world warp bubble. Hence the significance.

In 1994, Mexican Mathematician Miguel Alcubierre proposed the first mathematically valid solution to the warp drive. More specifically, he outlined a spacecraft propulsion system previously only envisioned in science fiction that can traverse the cosmos above the speed of light without violating currently accepted laws of physics. 

That solution was lauded for its elegant mathematics, yet simultaneously derided for its use of theoretical materials and massive amounts of energy that appeared virtually impossible to engineer in any practical way.

extract:

“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,” reads the actual findings published in the peer-reviewed European Physical Journal, “a micro/nano-scale structure has been discovered that predicts negative energy density distribution that closely matches requirements for the Alcubierre metric.”

Or put more simply, as White did in a recent email to The Debrief, “To my knowledge, this is the first paper in the peer-reviewed literature that proposes a realizable nano-structure that is predicted to manifest a real, albeit humble, warp bubble.”

This fortuitous finding, says White, not only confirms the predicted “toroidal” structure and negative energy aspects of a warp bubble, but also resulted in potential pathways he and other researchers can follow when trying to design, and one day actually construct, a real-world warp-capable spacecraft.

“This is a potential structure we can propose to the community that one could build that will generate a negative vacuum energy density distribution that is very similar to what’s required for an Alcubierre space warp,” explained White.

more at link.........................

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My first reaction was, is this another faulty claim as made by the "inventor" of the electromagnetic drive? You know the one, that which has no exhaust....just plug it in,and you can cruise to the destination of your dreams. 

 Just dreams as physics tells us. 

OK, while my puny mind is boggling, what do others think of this? Is it the outcome needed to facilitate visiting other stellar systems? I have no qualms that if this is all it appears to be, it will still be a century or more, until we are able to manufacture star ships with warp drive capabilities. Or will some smart arse scientist 😉 burst this bubble and reveal some anomaly or trickery or false readings? Or will this dream turn out to be reality, or am I a gullible wishful thinking old fool?

 

[beecee]

Being fascinated by the OP article and paper, I did some more research......

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/no-warp-bubble/

Ethan Siegel

extract:

So, what did this new “warp bubble” paper actually do?

The article, thankfully, published in the open access (but often dubious) European Physical Journal C, is publicly available to anyone wishing to download it. (Link here.) Using micron-scale electrical conductors in a variety of shapes, including pillars, plates, spheres and other cavities, teams of researchers were able to generate electric potentials (or changes in voltage) of a few hundred microvolts, completely in line with what previous experiments and theoretical predictions both indicate. That’s what the DARPA-funded project was for, and that’s what the experimental research surrounding this idea accomplished: in a custom Casimir cavity.

However, there’s an enormous difference between what teams working on Casimir cavities do experimentally and the numerical calculations performed in this paper. That’s right: This isn’t an experimental paper, but rather a theoretical paper, one with a suspiciously low number (zero) of theoretical physicists on it. The paper relies on the dynamic vacuum model — a model typically applicable to single atoms — to model the energy density throughout space that would be generated by this cavity. They then use another technique, worldline numerics, to assess how the vacuum changes in response to the custom Casimir cavity.

And then it gets shady. “Where’s my warp bubble?” They didn’t make one. In fact, they didn’t calculate one, either. All they did was show that the three-dimensional energy density generated by this cavity displayed some qualitative correlations with the energy density field required by the Alcubierre drive. They don’t match in a quantitative sense; they were not generated experimentally, but only calculated numerically; and most importantly, they are restricted to microscopic scales and extremely low energy densities. There’s a lot of speculation and conjecture, and all of it is unproven.

That isn’t to say this might not be an interesting idea that might someday pan out. But the most generous thing I can say about it is this: it isn’t fully baked. The most worrisome part, as a scientist familiar with Dr. White’s grandiose claims surrounding physics-violating engines in the past, is that he’s making new grand claims without adequate supporting evidence. He’s going to be looking at tiny, low-power systems and attempting to make measurements right at the limit of what his equipment will be able to detect. And, in the very recent past, he has fooled himself (and many others) into believing a novel effect was present when, in fact, it was not. An error, where his team failed to account for the magnetic and electric fields generated by the wires powering his previous apparatus, was all he wound up measuring.

and this also struck me........................

"It may be possible, with the proper configuration, to use the Casimir effect in a controlled fashion to substitute for Alcubierre’s original idea of exotic matter that possessed some type of negative energy.

However, one must be careful — as stated earlier, it’s easy to fool yourself. The Casimir effect isn’t equivalent to a warp bubble. But in principle, it could be used to warp space in the negative fashion that would be needed to create one".

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Edited December 10, 2021 by beecee

[Markus Hanke]

5 hours ago, beecee said:

The Casimir effect isn’t equivalent to a warp bubble. But in principle, it could be used to warp space in the negative fashion that would be needed to create one

And herein lies the problem - the energy density of a Casimir region is negative only relative to its non-confined surroundings; it isn’t negative in an absolute sense, it’s just lower than ordinary vacuum. That means the gravitational effect of such a region is the same as that of ordinary matter, and not related to what you’d get from exotic matter.

You can’t build an Alcubierre bubble via the Casimir effect.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Markus Hanke

[beecee]

8 hours ago, Markus Hanke said:

 it isn’t negative in an absolute sense, it’s just lower than ordinary vacuum. That means the gravitational effect of such a region is the same as that of ordinary matter, and not related to what you’d get from exotic matter.

OK, that seems to make sense to me. So the "But in principle, it could be used to warp space in the negative fashion that would be needed to create one" is somewhat a stretch or exaggeration? 

[Markus Hanke]

14 hours ago, beecee said:

OK, that seems to make sense to me. So the "But in principle, it could be used to warp space in the negative fashion that would be needed to create one" is somewhat a stretch or exaggeration? 

This person has somewhat of a reputation I’m afraid, so what he says is to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

[beecee]

17 hours ago, Markus Hanke said:

This person has somewhat of a reputation I’m afraid, so what he says is to be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Both Siegal and White it seems.

My own doubts certainly existed, (at least as per the OP claim and that of White) as such a discovery in reality would be breathtakingly ground breaking and had the science world acting with far more interest then it has.

[Markus Hanke]

6 hours ago, beecee said:

Both Siegal and White it seems.

My own doubts certainly existed, (at least as per the OP claim and that of White) as such a discovery in reality would be breathtakingly ground breaking and had the science world acting with far more interest then it has.

To be honest, the entire concept of the Alcubierre bubble is interesting from a theoretical point of view - but as a propulsion technology it is completely useless. For one thing, the region of the bubble’s walls would harbour extreme tidal forces that would make it impossible for anything to enter or exit and still remain in one piece. The other big issue is that, once in motion, I see no physical way to steer/manoeuvre the bubble into a different direction, or even bring it to a halt. And there are several other problems as well, never even mind the need for exotic matter to create it in the first place.

My concern here would also be of an ethical nature - if you were to create one of these bubbles with the right properties and direct it against a target, it would make for a very destructive weapon (tidal forces in its walls). 

[Exoscientist]

On 12/10/2021 at 9:16 PM, Markus Hanke said:

And herein lies the problem - the energy density of a Casimir region is negative only relative to its non-confined surroundings; it isn’t negative in an absolute sense, it’s just lower than ordinary vacuum. That means the gravitational effect of such a region is the same as that of ordinary matter, and not related to what you’d get from exotic matter.

You can’t build an Alcubierre bubble via the Casimir effect.

 I’m not sure that’s correct. Every discussion I’ve seen regards it as a region of negative energy with respect to the normal vacuum, meaning it’s energy content is below that of the normal vacuum.

  In any case, here’s an article on a different peer-reviewed published proposal for a warp drive,  This one remarkably does not require negative energy:

Star Trek’s Warp Drive Leads to New Physics
Researchers are taking a closer look at this science-fiction staple—and bringing the idea a little closer to reality
By Robert Gast, Spektrum on July 13, 2021
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/star-treks-warp-drive-leads-to-new-physics/

 

  Robert Clark

[swansont]

2 hours ago, Exoscientist said:

I’m not sure that’s correct. Every discussion I’ve seen regards it as a region of negative energy with respect to the normal vacuum, meaning it’s energy content is below that of the normal vacuum.

That’s what the quoted part said - it’s lower than the unconfined (i.e. free-space) vacuum. Which is not zero.

[Markus Hanke]

8 hours ago, Exoscientist said:

Every discussion I’ve seen regards it as a region of negative energy with respect to the normal vacuum, meaning it’s energy content is below that of the normal vacuum.

Yes, that’s what I said.