arXiv: Alien warp engines can be detected by gravitational waves
Scientists in Great Britain and Germany have discovered a way to detect alien warp engines. They found that the collapse of an unstable device would generate characteristic gravitational waves. Research results published on the arXiv preprint server.
Warp drives, popularized by science fiction, have a theoretical basis in general relativity. In 1994, Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre described how they could work and proposed a spacetime metric that makes faster-than-light travel possible. Warp drive compresses spacetime in front of it and expands it behind it, allowing the ship to travel great distances without violating the rule that one cannot travel faster than the speed of light.
However, none of Einstein’s known equations describe a stable warp drive. He quickly emerges from this state, and the space-time bubble dissipates or collapses. While instability is the main challenge to creating warp engines, it is what makes them detectable.
The researchers simulated the operation of a warp drive and analyzed its possible gravitational waves in the event of a failure. It turned out that the collapse of the warp drive generates a signal that begins with a burst, followed by a period of oscillation. This is similar to what happens when an unstable neutron star collapses or two black holes collide head-on.
Such gravitational waves are outside the frequency range of current ground-based detectors. In the future, high-frequency detectors may be developed that can detect these signals.
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