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Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3567–3570 (1998)

Superluminal Travel Requires Negative Energies

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Ken D. Olum*
Institute of Cosmology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155

Received 1 May 1998; revised 11 August 1998; published in the issue dated 26 October 1998

I investigate the relationship between faster-than-light travel and weak-energy-condition violation, i.e., negative energy densities. In a general spacetime it is difficult to define faster-than-light travel, and I give an example of a metric which appears to allow superluminal travel, but in fact is just flat space. To avoid such difficulties, I propose a definition of superluminal travel which requires that the path to be traveled reach a destination surface at an earlier time than any neighboring path. With this definition (and assuming the generic condition) I prove that superluminal travel requires weak-energy-condition violation.

© 1998 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.3567
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.3567
PACS:
04.20.Gz

*Email address: kdo@alum.mit.edu