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by scionthefly 979 days ago
Theoretical warp physics -- the real kind, like Alcubierre, not the Wesley Crusher kind -- proposes that a source of negative mass would be critical to the creation of a warp field.

Antimatter as part of an energy storage system for propulsion is still a good idea. They'll just have to look elsewhere for that property, or modify the theory to work on different principles. Eric Lentz is working in that direction and doesn't think negative mass/energy is needed.

2 comments

>Theoretical warp physics -- the real kind, like Alcubierre, not the Wesley Crusher kind -- proposes that a source of negative mass would be critical to the creation of a warp field.

Well, yes, that's always been the crucial missing component from Alcubierre's design, but I've never seen anyone suggest antimatter would have negative mass or energy before now. The talk has always been about some hypothetical exotic matter

But we've seen anti matter and we already _know_ it doesn't have negative mass.