Open research · updated 2026-08-07
Is a jump drive possible?
A rigorous, facts-only investigation into faster-than-light travel — Alcubierre-class warp drives, exotic matter, the energy conditions, and the theorems that stand in the way. Every conclusion here is a claim that survived attack in a verified ledger; nothing is asserted from authority.
The short answer
In currently verified physics, there is no faster-than-light jump drive. Every superluminal route we examined is blocked by a theorem — and we did not take those theorems on trust: we recomputed the Alcubierre energy from the metric, reproduced the quantum-inequality figure from the source's own equations, independently priced the largest proposed energy reduction and then showed its wall carries stress-energy with no rest frame, and traced every "positive-energy" proposal to the same gap.
Two doors are left ajar, both requiring physics beyond standard general relativity, and neither yet priced. The one mission that is computable today is a slow ship: a subluminal cruise to Alpha Centauri, a 44-year round trip, limited by the rocket equation rather than by relativity.
The routes, at a glance
| Route | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Alcubierre bubble | BLOCKED | 188 solar masses of negative energy classically; the quantum inequality then forces the wall to ~10⁻³³ m and the cost to ~10²⁰ galaxy masses. |
| Van Den Broeck volume trick | BLOCKED | Cuts the amount by 32 orders of magnitude (independently reproduced) — but the wall stress-energy has no rest frame (Hawking-Ellis Type IV). |
| Positive-energy solitons | BLOCKED | Positivity proven for one observer family only; a boosted observer sees negative density, and the papers' own texts concede the weak energy condition fails. |
| Modified gravity / non-minimal coupling | OPEN | Two genuinely open doors, both requiring physics beyond standard general relativity — and neither yet priced. |
| Subluminal ship (0.2c) | OPEN | No theorem blocks it. A 43.9-year round trip to Alpha Centauri, limited by the rocket equation, not relativity. |
How to read this site
Findings
Every claim, its status, and what it rests on. Verified means it survived an adversarial attack; Refuted means it was disproven and superseded.
Browse findings →Method
Why this is trustworthy: prose carries claim IDs, not citations; every quote is re-found in the source by a script; a claim reaches "verified" only by surviving a documented attack.
How it works →Open data
The entire ledger is downloadable and dedicated to the public domain. Sources, claims, evidence, and every attack — the raw files this site is built from.
Download the data →Interactive simulator
See every configuration as a live field: drag the bubble speed, radius and wall thickness and watch the negative-energy region and the mass budget recompute. The physics runs in your browser and self-checks against the reference on load.
This is a living document. As new papers are read and new checks are run, the ledger updates and this site rebuilds from it. Last update 2026-08-07.