Science Speaker Series: Dr. Erik Lentz

Breaking the Warp Barrier: Hyper-Fast Solitons in Einstein-Maxwell-Plasma Theory Solitons in space–time capable of transporting time-like observers at superluminal speeds have long been tied to violations of the weak, strong, and dominant energy conditions of general relativity. The negative-energy sources required for these solitons must be created through energy-intensive uncertainty principle processes as no such classical source is known in particle physics. This talk presents an approach for overcoming this barrier, explicitly constructing a class of soliton solutions that are capable of superluminal motion and sourced by purely positive energy densities. The solitons are also shown to be capable of being sourced from the stress-energy of a conducting plasma and classical electromagnetic fields. This is the first example of hyper-fast solitons resulting from known and familiar sources, reopening the discussion of superluminal mechanisms rooted in conventional physics. For more information, please take a look at the following paper: https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/abe692 To see more of Dr. Lentz's work, you can visit his website: https://www.eriklentzphd.com/