Paradox-Free FTL Travel in Higher Dimensional Spaces

Fröning, Holger

doi:10.1063/1.1649687

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 9 publications

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“…Euclidean Relativity can be easily extended to a form of "brane" world multiverse theory that does not require more than the four dimensions of the so called "Hyperspace" (Fontana, Murad and Baker, 2007), or of other extended space-time concepts (Froning, 2004;Meholic, 2004). The Hyperspace hosts a parallel space-time structure on each of its four dimensions (Fontana, 2005), this structure is compatible with the existence of "non visible" matter and predicts it in the amount measured through gravitational effects by just assuming the other three space-time structures are similar to our own (Fontana, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gravitational Waves in the Hyperspace

Fontana¹

2008

AIP Conference Proceedings

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The new techniques for high speed space travel, capable of overcoming current limitations, require the existence of at least one additional dimension for defining flight trajectories. This requirement combines with the already known possibility of using high-frequency gravitational waves for inducing motion. An additional large space dimension has been already found in the Euclidean formulation of Relativity within the Hyperspace paradigm, the finding does not require any new fundamental discovery and can be exploited with the current understanding of physics. The next step consists of analyzing how the traditional formulation of gravitational waves merges with the Hyperspace formalism. Specifically, the traditional relativistic analysis forces gravitational waves to propagate in three spatial dimensions and they are not allowed to propagate through time, treating them like electromagnetic waves. On the other hand, according to the Schwarzschild metric, gravity propagates in four dimensions in the Hyperspace. Our objective is to discuss the possibility that some important features of gravitational waves are still largely overlooked and these features might involve accessibility to the proper time dimension for advanced propulsion schemes, observation and communications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gravitational Waves in the Hyperspace

Fontana¹

2008

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Effect of the Vacuum Energy Density on Graviton Propagation

Modanese¹,

Fontana²

2004

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Abstract. It has been known for some time that the value Λ of the vacuum energy density affects the propagation equation for gravitons -the analogue of photons for the gravitational field. (For historical reasons, Λ is also called "cosmological constant".) More precisely, if Λ is not zero, then a mass term appears in the propagation equation, such that m 2 =-Λ. As a consequence, the polarization states of gravitons also change, because a massless particle has only two polarization states while a massive particle has more. This effect of the Λ-term has been confirmed by recent calculations in a curved background, which is actually the only proper setting, since solutions of the classical Einstein equations in the presence of a Λ-term represent a space with constant curvature. A real value for the mass (when Λ<0) will show up as a slight exponential damping in the gravitational potential, which is however strongly constrained by astronomical data. The consequences of an imaginary mass (for Λ>0) are still unclear; on general grounds, one can expect the onset of instabilities in this case. This is also confirmed by numerical simulations of quantum gravity which became recently available. These properties gain a special interest in consideration of the following. (1) The most recent cosmological data indicate that Λ is positive and of the order of 0.1 J/m 3 . Is this value compatible with a stable propagation of gravitons? (2) The answer to the previous question lies perhaps in the scale dependence of the effective value of Λ. It could then happen that Λ is actually negative at the small distance/large energy scale at which the quantum behavior of gravitational fields and waves becomes relevant. Applications for an advanced propulsion scheme is that local contributions to the vacuum energy density (remarkably in superconductors in certain states, and in very strong static electromagnetic fields) can change locally the sign of Λ, and so affect locally the propagation and the properties of gravitons. The graviton wavefunction, for different values of the parameters, may be characterized by superluminal phase velocity or by unitarity only in imaginary valued time.

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