Writing: Input Wanted Warp Drive System: Could Powerful Lasers Reach Warp Speed?

[jackyruth]

This is a very blunt guess, but since light can warp space-time a bit better then gravity, and that light is a ripple in hyper space. Could it be possible for 14 powerful lasers that are guided by "mirrors" around the ship to form a circle powerful enough to reach warp speed? The idea of a big ring made of matter spinning is discouraging.

Even better, could this warp drive system skip the need of exotic matter completely?

 

[phinds]

A ripple in hyper space? What is hyper space? You talk about as though it were something other than science fiction. Since it IS fiction, you can have it do anything you like.

 

[jackyruth]

Hyper space is a theory where the laws merge together in a higher dimensional space.

Since light is theoretically a ripple in N-dimensions, I was wondering if using lasers can replace the current warp design(in making at NASA)

There must be someone who's more of an expert in this matter than I.

I know it's scifi, but the math still has to work. The Riemann metric tensor still had to exist. (am I going down the wrong track?)

 

[L4xord]

Hyper space is a theory where the laws merge together in a higher dimensional space.

Since light is theoretically a ripple in N-dimensions, I was wondering if using lasers can replace the current warp design(in making at NASA)

There must be someone who's more of an expert in this matter than I.

I know it's scifi, but the math still has to work. The Riemann metric tensor still had to exist. (am I going down the wrong track?)

If this is purely science fiction then anything generally goes. But if you are being serious, I recommend checking your source of information.

There has been a lot hype about NASA supposedly building a warp drive technology. From what I've heard this is VERY preliminary and almost all theoretical with a few small lab experiments. So don't get your hopes up or think that we'll all be flying to Alpha Centauri in 20 years.

 

[Fredrik]

This is a very blunt guess, but since light can warp space-time a bit better then gravity,

Spacetime warping is gravity.

and that light is a ripple in hyper space.

Not sure what you mean by hyper space, but a ripple in spacetime would be a gravitational wave. Light is a wave in the electromagnetic field.

Could it be possible for 14 powerful lasers that are guided by "mirrors" around the ship to form a circle powerful enough to reach warp speed? The idea of a big ring made of matter spinning is discouraging.

Even better, could this warp drive system skip the need of exotic matter completely?

Unfortunately no. If we can solve the practical problems (heat melting stuff), it would essentially just shift the ship's center of mass, at least if the power source for the lasers is located on the ship. If the lasers are fired at the ship from a bunch of other ships, then it could give the ship a small push, but the effect of capturing the light in a "mirror ring" would, as far as I can tell, only slow the acceleration by making the ship heavier.

 

[Fredrik]

Hyper space is a theory where the laws merge together in a higher dimensional space.

This isn't a term that physicists use. The only thing I've heard of that sounds similar to what you've said is that the five string theories in 9+1 spacetime dimensions and a supergravity theory can be unified by adding one more spatial dimension to the theories. I don't think that's useful here.

...the current warp design(in making at NASA)

They're not anywhere near being able to actually make one.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

This thread does not match the posting criteria as it frames fiction as fact.
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=680313