Linearized warp drive and the energy conditions

Abstract

''Warp drive'' spacetimes are useful as ''gedanken-experiments'' and as a theoretician's probe of the foundations of general relativity. Applying linearized gravity to the weak-field warp drive, i.e., for non-relativistic warp-bubble velocities, we find that the occurrence of energy condition violations in this class of spacetimes is generic to the form of the geometry under consideration and is not simply a side-effect of the ''superluminal'' properties. Using the linearized construction it is now possible to compare the warp field energy with the mass-energy of the spaceship, and applying the ''volume integral quantifier'', extremely stringent conditions on the warp drive spacetime are found.