Metamaterial-based model of the Alcubierre warp drive

Abstract

Electromagnetic metamaterials are capable of emulating many exotic space-time geometries, such as black holes, rotating cosmic strings, and the big bang singularity. Here we present a metamaterial-based model of the Alcubierre warp drive, and study its limitations due to available range of material parameters. It appears that the material parameter range introduces strong limitations on the achievable "warp speed", so that ordinary magnetoelectric materials cannot be used. On the other hand, newly developed "perfect" bi-anisotropic non-reciprocal magnetoelectric metamaterials should be capable of emulating the physics of warp drive gradually accelerating up to 1/4c.

15 pages, 3 figures, this version is accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.B

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• Electromagnetic wormholes and virtual magnetic monopoles
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Cited by in corpus (7)

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• Quantum Tunneling and Quasinormal Modes in the Spacetime of Alcubierre Warp Drive
• Anti-telephones in transformation optics: metamaterials with closed null geodesics
• Modeling of causality with metamaterials
• Membrane Models as a Means of Propulsion in General Relativity: Super-Luminal Warp-Drive that Satisfies the Weak Energy Condition
• Virtual Black Holes in Hyperbolic Metamaterials
• Collision of "metamaterial universes": experimental realization of Minkowski domain wall