1997/07/10 by William A. Hiscock · 82 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Brane #Causal sets #Charged black hole #Classical mechanics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Mathematical physics #Maxwell's equations in curved spacetime #Penrose process #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum field theory in curved spacetime #Quantum gravity #Quantum mechanics #Scalar field #Schwarzschild radius #Spacetime #Spacetime symmetries #Spacetime topology #Spherically symmetric spacetime #Theoretical physics #Warp drive #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0264-9381/14/11/002
published in Classical and Quantum Gravity 14(11), L183-L188 (IOP Publishing) · 9 pages, ReVTeX
arxiv created 1997/07/10 · openalex publication_date 1997/11/01 · arxiv updated 2010/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The expectation value of the stress - energy tensor of a free conformally invariant scalar field is computed in a two-dimensional reduction of the Alcubierre `warp-drive' spacetime. Unless the spacetime is in the Hartle - Hawking state at an appropriate temperature, the stress - energy diverges on past and future event horizons which form when the apparent velocity of the spaceship exceeds the speed of light. The likelihood of the spacetime being in this state, whether due to natural evolution or the application of technology, is briefly discussed.