Superluminal travel requires negative energies
Jun, 19987 pages
Published in:
- Phys.Rev.Lett. 81 (1998) 3567-3570
e-Print:
- gr-qc/9805003 [gr-qc]
Report number:
- TUTP-98-02
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Abstract: (arXiv)
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.Note:
- 5 pages, RevTeX, 2 figures with epsf. This paper now contains all the material of gr-qc/6805003 and gr-qc/9806091 since these became a single article in Phys. Rev. Lett
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