Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3567 - 3570 (1998)Superluminal Travel Requires Negative Energies
Ken D. Olum *
I investigate the relationship between faster-than-light travel and weak-energy-condition violation, i.e., negative energy densities. In a general spacetime it is difficult to define faster-than-light travel, and I give an example of a metric which appears to allow superluminal travel, but in fact is just flat space. To avoid such difficulties, I propose a definition of superluminal travel which requires that the path to be traveled reach a destination surface at an earlier time than any neighboring path. With this definition (and assuming the generic condition) I prove that superluminal travel requires weak-energy-condition violation. ©1998 The American Physical Society
URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v81/p3567 * Email address: kdo@alum.mit.edu See AlsoPhysics News Update: Physics News Update, Number 398, Story #2 (1998). [ Abstract | Previous article | Next article | Issue 17 ] |
A new free weekly publication from APS
Read the latest from Physics:
Viewpoint: Undoing a quantum measurement
This Week's Milestone Letters are from 1994: |



