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Igor I. Smolyaninov
geometries, such as black holes, rotating cosmic strings, and the big bang
drive, and study its limitations due to available range of material parameters. It
appears that the material parameter range introduces strong limitations on the
accelerating up to 1/4c.
Metamaterial optics [1,2] greatly benefited from the field theoretical ideas developed to
local dielectric permittivity εik and magnetic permeability μik tensors in electromagnetic
metamaterials has enabled numerous recent attempts to engineer highly unusual “optical
spaces”, such as electromagnetic black holes [4-8], wormholes [9], and rotating cosmic
strings [10]. Phase transitions in metamaterials are also capable of emulating physical
processes which took place during and immediately after the big bang [11,12]. These
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models can be very informative for phenomena where researchers have no direct
Since its original introduction by Alcubierre [13], the warp drive spacetime has
become one of the most studied geometries in general relativity. In the simplest form it
(
where r = ( x − v0 t ) + y 2 + z 2
2
)
1/ 2
is the distance from the center of the “warp bubble”,
v0 is the warp drive velocity, and v=v0f(r). The function f(r) is a smooth function
spheroidal “warp bubble” which is moving with respect to asymptotically flat external
spacetime with an arbitrary speed v0. Such a metric bypasses the speed limitation due to
special relativity: while nothing can move with speeds greater than the speed of light
with respect to the flat background, spacetime itself has no restriction on the speed with
which it can be stretched. One example of fast stretching of the spacetime is given by
the inflation theories, which demonstrate that immediately after the big bang our
Unfortunately, when the spacetime metric (1) is plugged into the Einstein’s
equations, it is apparent that exotic matter with negative energy density is required to
build the warp drive. In addition, it was demonstrated that the eternal superluminal warp
drive becomes unstable when quantum mechanical effects are introduced [14]. Another
line of research deals with a situation in which a warp drive would be created at a very
low velocity, and gradually accelerated to large speeds. Physics of such a process is also
quite interesting [15]. However, very recently it was demonstrated that even low speed
T00 component of the energy-momentum tensor (the energy density distribution) appears
emulating the warp drive metric (1). Since energy conditions violations do not appear to
be a problem in this case, metamaterial realization of the warp drive is possible. We will
find out what kind of metamaterial geometry is needed to emulate a laboratory model of
the warp drive, so that we can build more understanding of the physics involved. It
appears that the available range of material parameters introduces strong limitations on
the possible “warp speed”. Nevertheless, our results demonstrate that physics of a
gradually accelerating warp drive can be modeled with newly developed “perfect”
magnetoelectric metamaterials built from split ring resonators [17]. Since even low
velocity physics of warp drives is quite interesting [15,16], such a lab model deserves
further study.
ds 2 = (c / n∞ ) dt 2 − (dx − v0 f ( ~
x )dt ) − dy 2 − dz 2
2 2
(2)
can be re-written as
2
(
ds 2 = (c / n∞ ) dt 2 − d~
~
x + v0 f ( ~ )
2
x )dt − dy 2 − dz 2 (3)
~ ~
where f (0) = 0 , and f ( ~
x ) → 1 for ~
x → ±∞ . The resulting metric is
⎛ 1 v02 ~ 2 ~ ⎞ 2 2 ~ 2 ~
ds = ⎜⎜ 2 − 2 f ( x ) ⎟⎟c dt − dx − 2v0 f ( ~
2
x )d~
x dt − dy 2 − dz 2 (4)
⎝ n∞ c ⎠
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Following ref.[18], Maxwell equations in this gravitational field can be written in the
three-dimensional form as
r r
r E
D=
rr
+ Hg , [ ] r H
B=
rr
+ gE , [ ] (5)
h h
where h=g00, and gα=-g0α/g00. These equations coincide with the macroscopic Maxwell
1
ε = μ = h −1 / 2 = (6)
1 v02 ~ 2 ~
− f (x )
n∞2 c 2
v0 ~ ~
f (x )
gx = c
(7)
1 v02 ~ 2 ~
− f (x )
n∞2 c 2
⎛ v02 n∞2 ~ 2 ~ ⎞ 2 v0 ~ ~
ε = μ ≈ n∞ ⎜⎜1 + f ( x ) ⎟
⎟ , g x ≈ n∞ f (x ) (8)
⎝ 2c 2 ⎠ c
g x2 ≤ (ε − 1)(μ − 1) , (9)
which means that a subluminal warp drive model based on the magnetoelectric effect
v0 ~ ~ n −1
f (x ) ≤ ∞ 2 (10)
c n∞
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This inequality demonstrates that while “the true warp drive” in vacuum ( n∞ = 1 ) is
magnetoelectric susceptibilities are two orders of magnitude smaller than the limiting
value described by eq. (9) [21], so that the warp drive model is impossible to make with
metamaterials built from split ring resonators allow experimentalists to reach the
limiting values described by eq.(9), and make a lab model of the warp drive possible.
Following ref.[17], the effective susceptibilities of the split ring metamaterial can be
nCdSωω02
g=
(
c ω02 − ω 2 − iωγ), (12)
where n is the split ring density, d is the gap in the ring, S is the ring area, and C is the
gap capacitance. These expressions explicitly demonstrate that the split ring
Equation (10) also provides an upper bound on the largest possible “warp
speed”, which is achievable within the described metamaterial model. This upper bound
GHz range, which look adequate to achieve this limit. Therefore, at the very least, we
can build a toy model of a warp drive “operating” at v0~1/4c. Coordinate dependence of
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f ( x ) = (1 + a 2 / ~
x2) .
~ ~ −1
warp drive metric. It appears that the material parameter range introduces strong
cannot emulate the warp drive. On the other hand, newly developed “perfect”
emulating the physics of gradually accelerating warp drive, which can reach “warp
speeds” up to 1/4c.
References
[4] I.I. Smolyaninov, “Surface plasmon toy-model of a rotating black hole”, New
[7] E.E. Narimanov and A.V. Kildishev, “Optical black hole: Broadband
[8] Q. Cheng and T. J. Cui, “An electromagnetic black hole made of metamaterials”,
arXiv:0910.2159v3
wormholes and virtual magnetic monopoles from metamaterials”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99,
183901 (2007).
[11] I.I. Smolyaninov and E.E. Narimanov, “Metric signature transitions in optical
[13] M. Alcubierre, "The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity",
[15] C. Clark, W.A. Hiscock, and S.L. Larson, “Null geodesics in the Alcubierre warp
drive spacetime: the view from the bridge”, Classical and Quantum Gravity 16, 3965-
3972 (1999).
[18] L.D. Landau, E.M. Lifshitz, The Classical Theory of Fields (Elsevier, Oxford,
2000).
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[20] W.F. Brown, R.M. Hornreich, and S. Shtrikman, “Upper bound on the
Figure Captions
v=1/4c
ε=μ
2.0 v=1/8c
ε, μ, gx
1.5
1.0
v=1/4c gx
0.5
v=1/8c
0.0
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
4x/a
Fig.1