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Another point for using warp drive (=


Not necessarily. There are some interesting potential radiation issues with "warp drives" as well. For example, at the boundary of a warp bubble of the generally-Alcubierre-like variety, space is shearing / expanding such that virtual particle pairs are incapable of recombining, just like at an event horizon. That could potentially create a great deal of radiation draining energy from the warp field. Additionally, what happens to particles that are intercepted by the travelling bubble? They don't just disappear!


Do you have any other info/links on the problems associated with the Alcubierre?


Here is a paper on the results of interactions with external matter en-route: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.5708

With a couple of popularizations:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/04/killer_warp_drive/

http://www.universetoday.com/93882/warp-drives-may-come-with...

(Essentially, particles encountered en-route pile up near the boundary and are released in a large burst when you turn the thing off, which is potentially very bad for the local environment, of which you are a part.)

And here's a paper on the horizon-like properties of the warp bubble boundary: http://staff.science.nus.edu.sg/~scilooe/srp_2003/sci_paper/...


> on the problems associated with the Alcubierre?

You mean aside from the fact that it doesn't exist?

It's a mathematical solution to some equations - it's not an actual physical thing.


Wouldn't a jump drive work slightly better in this case?


Meh. We just need radiation shields.


Which in this case would just be an incredibly strong magnetic field...


What about neutral particles?


Answer: inhomogeneous magnetic fields. See the Stern–Gerlach experiment.

So basically your spaceship needs to have the core part in a spinning sphere generating such a magnetic field. Also not to forget the gravitational attraction which would make the free particles in space quite attracted to your bulk spaceship, following you like mosquitos :).




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