


"There is hope."


I. From Fiction to Feasible



Warp spaceship





II. Moving Towards the Stars



Kepler Exoplanet







Comments     Threshold


RE: Seems like fantasy
By Mathos on 9/18/2012 1:46:41 PM , Rating: 1
My guess is it would be a rare earth exotic, or a manmade exotic material, that acted as a super conductor, or a large enough super magnet. Which theoretically would be able to warp the membrane of space time like it's showing in the picture.... Oscillating said field, would likely generate the same effect as having a powered wheel turning against a semi loose belt track. I don't know if that's the best analogy to use though.

RE: Seems like fantasy
By zephyrprime on 9/18/2012 2:31:32 PM , Rating: 3
No, the exotic matter they are talking about would be along the lines of dark matter or super symmetry particles or other stuff that is know by mathematical physical models only (no known real world examples).

RE: Seems like fantasy
By geddarkstorm on 9/18/2012 2:45:47 PM , Rating: 2
Dark Energy might possibly be an example, as that is the sort of behavior the exotic matter would have. May well be that's what dark energy is; the effects of this exotic matter which may be what we call dark matter.

So much speculation though. As you say, there's no solidly known real world examples. But, since they are going to test this in the lab now, it seems we have a hypothesized way to do this without actual exotic matter (or to generate it temporarily into existence for a short time?).

RE: Seems like fantasy
By gwem557 on 9/18/2012 4:58:04 PM , Rating: 2
One possibility, I'm hoping:

Zero Point Energy

RE: Seems like fantasy
By teldar on 9/19/2012 9:19:40 AM , Rating: 2
The problem with dark matter is that it is dark because it interacts so weakly with other matter. There is some theoretical proof out is all over, there is just no easy way to detect it because of its nature.
Not to say it wouldn't be a possibility, but with its weak interaction, it would surprise me.

RE: Seems like fantasy
By geddarkstorm on 9/20/2012 10:54:02 AM , Rating: 2
Would something of negative density (which is what exotic matter is, matter with negative density!) be able to interact with normal matter, or light? The idea is it warps the fabric of space-time with its insane impossibility; but conceptually it's hard to imagine negative density matter interacting much or at all with normal matter in a direct sense... hence it might have the properties of dark matter as we see it. Absolute and complete conjecture! There are much better candidates for dark matter, but it's interesting to think about.

RE: Seems like fantasy
By Jaybus on 9/25/2012 4:17:08 PM , Rating: 2
Why do you say it interacts weakly? It is true that nobody has directly detected dark energy or dark matter, yet it is very easy to indirectly detect dark energy by measuring the acceleration of the expansion of the universe and dark matter by observing light from distant galaxies being altered by gravitational lensing. Perhaps nobody can DIRECTLY detect dark matter or energy simply because we have not yet encountered any.

Consider a bunch of soap bubbles in the ocean. An observer inside the soap bubble can directly observe phenomena inside his soap bubble. He can look outside of his soap bubble and observe that other soap bubbles are moving relative to him and measure the forces being applied to the other soap bubbles. If he cannot, from inside his bubble, see the water, then he can only conclude that some "dark" energy is affecting soap bubbles. Perhaps a galaxy is a soap bubble of ordinary matter and energy floating in a sea of dark matter and energy.

Now that the Higgs boson has been found, we must consider the Higgs field. Mass is determined by how strongly a particle interacts with the Higgs field. We usually consider a particle, say an electron, to have a fixed mass. However, that is only true in a uniform Higgs field. What if the Higgs field is not uniform. The same particle would have a greater mass in regions of higher Higgs flux than in regions of lower Higgs flux. Now if we move a particle from a low flux region to a high flux region, then it's mass increases. Since E = mC^2, then either energy is not conserved or the speed of light increases. But wait! If we move it back into the low flux region the mass returns to what it was before. So did we gain and then lose energy, thus preserving the conservation of energy, or is the speed of light dependent on the Higgs field as well?

We don't know, because nobody has been able to reconcile the standard model with general relativity. Something is missing, and we are basically waiting on the next Einstein to come along and discover it.

