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Faster-than-light (superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light in vacuum (c). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero rest mass (i.e., photons ) may travel at the speed of light, and that nothing may travel faster.
The Star Trek television series and films use the term "warp drive" to describe their method of faster-than-light travel. Neither the Alcubierre theory, nor anything similar, existed when the series was conceived—the term "warp drive" and general concept originated with John W. Campbell's 1931 science fiction novel Islands of Space. [47]
In special relativity, a faster-than-light particle would have spacelike four-momentum, [3] unlike ordinary particles that have time-like four-momentum. While some theories suggest the mass of tachyons is imaginary , modern formulations often consider their mass to be real, [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] with redefined formulas for momentum and energy.
The current scientific consensus is that faster-than-light communication is not possible, and to date it has not been achieved in any experiment. Superluminal communication other than possibly through wormholes is likely impossible [ 1 ] because, in a Lorentz-invariant theory, it could be used to transmit information into the past .
In quantum field theory, this assumption can be replaced by the assumption that Alice and Bob are spacelike separated. [4] This alternate version of the no-communication theorem shows that faster-than-light communication cannot be achieved using processes which obey the rules of quantum field theory.
In this, he describes the Alcubierre drive, a theoretical means of traveling faster than light that does not violate the physical principle that nothing can locally travel faster than light. In this paper, he constructed a model that might transport a volume of flat space inside a "bubble" of curved space.
The speed of light is the upper limit for the speeds of objects with positive rest mass, and individual photons cannot travel faster than the speed of light. [39] This is experimentally established in many tests of relativistic energy and momentum .
The theory of relativity says information cannot be transmitted faster than light. This experiment does not actually transmit a signal from object 1 to object 2. The time when the light beam strikes object 2 is controlled by the person at the lighthouse, not anyone on object 1, so no one on object 1 can transmit a message to object 2 by this ...