Starship Congress 2017 - Miguel Alcubierre Faster Than The Speed Of Light - Warp Drive

"Dr. Miguel Alcubierre obtained a Licentiate degree in physics in 1988 and a MSc degree in theoretical physics in 1990, both at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). At the end of 1990, Miguel moved to Wales to attend graduate school at Cardiff University, receiving his PhD degree in 1994 through study of numerical general relativity.
After 1996 he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany, developing new numerical techniques used in the description of black holes. Since 2002, he has worked at the Nuclear Sciences Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he conducts research in numerical relativity, employing computers to formulate and solve the physical equations first proposed by Albert Einstein.
The solitary wave solutions proposed by Alcubierre for the Einsteinian field equations may possibly prove general relativity consistent with the experimentally verified non-locality of quantum mechanics. This work militates against the idea that quantum non-locality would ultimately require abandoning the mathematical structure of general relativity.
On June 11th 2012, Alcubierre was appointed Director of the Nuclear Sciences Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
On June 14th 2016, after a very successful four-year term as Director of the Nuclear Sciences Institute at UNAM, Miguel Alcubierre was re-elected by the Governing Board of UNAM as Director of the Nuclear Sciences Institute for another four-year period."
"In this talk I will give a short introduction to some of the basic concepts of Einstein’s special theory of relativity, which is at the basis of all of modern physics. In particular, I will concentrate on the concept of causality, and why causality implies than nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum.
I will later discuss some of the basic ideas behind Einstein’s other great theory, General Relativity, which is the modern theory of gravity and postulates that the geometry space-time is dynamic and the presence of large concentrations of mass and energy produce a “curvature” in space-time.
I will then talk about how the curvature of space-time can be used in several ways to travel “faster than the speed of light” by distorting the geometry away from that of flat space. In particular, I will discuss the ideas behind the geometric model for a “warp drive”.""