Hyperwave: Hyper-Fast Communication within General Relativity

Abstract: Warp-drives are solutions of general relativity widely considered unphysical due to high negative energy requirements. While the majority of the literature has focused on macroscopic solutions towards the goal of interstellar travel, in this work we explore what happens in the small radius limit. In this regime the magnitude of the total negative energy requirements gets smaller than the energy contained in a lightning bolt, more than 70 orders of magnitude less than the original Alcubierre warp drive. Such an amount could conceivably be generated with current technology by scaling up Casimir-like apparatuses. We then describe a tubular distribution of externally-generated negative energy which addresses the major issues plaguing macroscopic warp-drives and propose a concrete mechanism to accelerate and decelerate a warp. A byproduct of warp deceleration is the emission of a ray of high-energy particles. The detection of such particles could be used as the backbone of a faster-than-light communication device, reminiscent of the hyperwave of science fiction, even though significant engineering challenges remain to achieve practical communication.