In 1994 the Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre assumed its "engine, bend (vicious) space." It uses a special kind of curvature of space-time as a bubble, which moves faster than light in the external Minkowski space.

Stop-stop, rather, the bubble is not moving: it only moves. Its kinetic energy at the beginning and at the end of the movement is the same, and he moved due to the curvature of space in front of him (compression) and behind it (the extension).

Before us the processes that are similar to the current progressive expansion of the Universe, only occurring locally and in different directions. The speed of light, as well as other sacred animals of physics, there is not suffering: if on the surface of the bubble could fix the spotlight, he safely bodies would forward. No tragedy travel into the past, usually inextricably linked with supraluminal flight. Upon arrival at the starting point And visited passengers bubble Alcubierre point B. there will be approximately the same time as before departure (plus travel time). However, the bubble with isolated piece of space can come to some remote star long before you get there the light, which started from the Ground simultaneously with the bubble - and despite the fact that the clock of a cosmonaut in a bubble and observer on Earth will show the same time.

The engine Alcubierre can be called more a transportaliser": it only changes the distance from the bladder Alcubierre to his destination, without violating the provisions of the impossibility of motion faster than light. (Here and below illustrate Harold White.)

Of course, the concept was weakness. In particular, initial calculations showed that to create this bubble and its travel through the Galaxy will need more mass than there is in the Universe. However, improvements like pipes Krasnikova solved the problem, reducing the required substance to several milligrams (for travel within our Galaxy). The issue with walls also solved: Yes, they require negative energy, but something similar has already been observed in the Casimir effect. Remind: between two very closely spaced flat surfaces in vacuum occurs a non-gravitational pull of nature. They made the difference in the number of virtual photons, constantly produced by vacuum: due to resonance phenomena (due plates) between the plates inside them comes less than outside. One of the physical interpretation of the Casimir effect says: in the inner region between the plates there is negative energy. Again, there is more evidence for the existence of particles of negative energies.

In fact, this engine was used at least once. This is exactly what happened inflationary expansion of the Universe: the space has expanded, with the light, say, from the star, which is 12 billion light-years, we see, and the star is removed at 44-45 billion light years. And to "transportation" was applied the same effect that Miguel Alcubierre offered space travelers, people.

Technically artificial bubble Alcubierre should consist of not only the ship, but also of the surrounding ring-shaped device, just dealing with the curvature of space-time around it. Outside the pipe Krasnikova this engine requires huge amounts of energy, but the pipe is not so much reminds spacecraft as "space Railways", with the understandable difficulties in the construction of infrastructure.

Yourself travelling in the vehicle, even after a number of "optimizing" his calculations the last years, should be spent on "the road" (again: no one will formally does not move, only change is in the space between the ship and purpose) with the "speed", which is ten times that of light, energy, roughly equivalent to the mass of Jupiter (talking about the ship with a diameter of 200 m).

Fortunately, NASA Harold white, head of the laboratory of advanced forms of motion, informally known as Eagleworks, recently conducted calculations that can significantly simplify the practical application of such a curved space of the engine.

The interferometer white - Judea uses the dimension of the phase shift is broken on two parts of the beam radiation helium-neon laser for registration of the curvature of space-time in the laboratory.

How? The fact that traditionally the best form for a ship in a bubble Alcubierre was considered to be a sphere or something like it. Accordingly, the same attributed to the bladder. Mr. white believes that, by changing the shape of the bubble at the cigar-shaped and increasing the thickness of the walls of the bubble, you can drastically reduce requirements for energy use, making it equivalent to around one tonne of substance, and for the 10-meter object - and at 500 kg of the most important, such a change of form makes less energetic and effect bladder Alcubierre on the surrounding normal space-time when braking, otherwise at the end of the road hypothetical traveler will just destroy everything that is there.

Moreover, according to Mr. white, small-scale experiments of this kind NASA researchers intend to take in the nearest time, bending space-time in the laboratory. "We are trying to understand whether we... desktop" experiment to bend space-time of about one ten millionth," says Harold white. For the registration of such an achievement he and his colleagues want to use the experimental setup, called them "the interferometer white - Judea to pervert the field (White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer), which is a modified interferometer Michelson - Morley experiment, and the experiments will be conducted in a Space center, Lyndon B. Johnson.

Relevant abstracts were submitted by Harold white, 14 September at the Symposium of the joint project of NASA and the Management of advanced studies of the Ministry of defense of the USA (DARPA) "a century of space ship".

Based on the materials Space.Com and NASA.