Hey thanks for the question! It's actually really mathematically sound. Unfortunately it's not physically sound.

The alcubierre metric can certainly be counted among the many analytical solutions to the einstein field equations (fundamental equations of general relativity) and has been cited in a decent number of theoretical GR papers. The "not so sound" part of it is actually the fact that you need negative energy density matter (basically negative mass) in order for the alcubierre drive to work.

It's one of the situations that comes up sometimes in physics where a solution to an equation MATHEMATICALLY works, but doesn't make any PHYSICAL sense. Basically, it's mathematically possible, but doesn't appear to be physically possible.

As for my thesis, I'm basically trying to generalize the idea that Alcubierre came up with and show that, independent of any coordinate system or other mathematical assumptions, the "warp drive" is physically impossible. It's kinda depressing (lol) because i'm attempting to mathematically demonstrate that faster-than-light travel is not possible within the framework that Alcubierre created, based on the fact that you have to be realistic about what is physically possible. Negative energy density mass is theoretically possible (look up the Casimir Effect), but in the quantities need to propel an actual "ship" it's just impractical. I think the numbers were around one solar mass (mass of the sun) of negative energy density matter (based on a paper that I can look up if you're interested... they've been sitting on my desk for a couple months)

Obviously all of the above explanation attempts to exclude large amounts of necessary math and GR background... If you're interested in the nitty gritty math/physics of general relativity and you're already familiar with some fundamental college math and physics kinda stuff i really suggest reading:

Gravity by James Hartle

Geometry and Relativity by Sean Carroll

Any textbook/website that discusses differential geometry would be really great too, although mathematicians and physicists tend to speak "different languages" sometimes.

Edit: Wow that got longer than I intended haha. Sorry didn't mean to go out of control there...

This post was edited by Spookyhoney on Dec 17 2017 12:08am

I have a masters in mathematics and I see the mathematics holds up but I guess I’m wondering what/how you hope to gain from your thesis if you already know because of the mathematics the physical vehicle is unbuildable.

I’m actually really curious so please don’t take what I’m asking as hate I’m really quite curious as typically with a thesis or research paper you hope to go deeper or uncover something new. Thus, I’m curious is there some other connection?

I have a masters in mathematics and I see the mathematics holds up but I guess I’m wondering what/how you hope to gain from your thesis if you already know because of the mathematics the physical vehicle is unbuildable.

I’m actually really curious so please don’t take what I’m asking as hate I’m really quite curious as typically with a thesis or research paper you hope to go deeper or uncover something new. Thus, I’m curious is there some other connection?

Edit: I should have read further my apologies your thesis is to prove that it is impossible to do such.

Hey no worries and no offense taken! Yeah it's kinda funny just demonstrating another way that we CAN'T do something, but that's science I guess lol.

I appreciate the curiosity and now I'm curious about your masters in math. Was it more of an applied kinda thing or more of a pure math? What was your thesis on?

Sorry for my delay I’ve been sick this week. I took an applied mathematics route but the typical upper level math and logic theory courses were still required. My school had two options which was thesis or project and I took route two. I worked on a project with a professor over two semesters which o helped contribute towards their paper and research in the field of biological mathematics. The actual study was for the state of Illinois and tracking prairie dog populations and disease spread using differential equations and statistics.

I now work at a transportation company as the Cost Model Administrator where I developed our Cost Model and help decide what accounts are profitable and what prices work for our corporation.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Hello,
I am a scientist who works in the social sciences. And you can see my works on my blog:
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=77920811&f=276

I also work in chemistry and biology, but in a less passionate way.
These are still sciences that I like a lot.

For me, there are five areas in the social sciences that are:

• The study of cultures and communities
  
• Politics
  
• The philosophy
  
• Language
  
• Body language

I do not think it is relevant to divide the social sciences into:
- mental illness
- conditioning of the body and mind
- and more

Social sciences are difficult to create, and often despised. So, I find it important to create a correct classification.

This post was edited by Chevaucheur on Jan 25 2018 03:35am