Faster-than-light

For other uses, see Faster than the speed of light (disambiguation).
Faster than the speed of light redirects here. It is not
to be confused with Faster Than the Speed of Night.

In the following examples, certain inuences may appear

to travel faster than light, but they do not convey energy or
information faster than light, so they do not violate special
relativity.

Faster-than-light (also superluminal or FTL)

communication and travel refer to the propagation of
information or matter faster than the speed of light.
Under the special theory of relativity, a particle (that has
rest mass) with subluminal velocity needs innite energy
to accelerate to the speed of light, although special
relativity does not forbid the existence of particles that
travel faster than light at all times (tachyons).

1.1 Daily sky motion

For an Earthbound observer, objects in the sky complete
one revolution around the Earth in 1 day. Proxima Centauri, which is the nearest star outside the solar system,
is about 4 light-years away.[5] On a geostationary view,
Proxima Centauri has a speed many times greater than
c as the rim speed of an object moving in a circle is a
product of the radius and angular speed.[5] It is also possible on a geostatic view for objects such as comets to
vary their speed from subluminal to superluminal and vice
versa simply because the distance from the Earth varies.
Comets may have orbits which take them out to more than
1000 AU.[6] The circumference of a circle with a radius
of 1000 AU is greater than one light day. In other words,
a comet at such a distance is superluminal in a geostatic,
and therefore non-inertial, frame.

On the other hand, what some physicists refer to as apparent or eective FTL[1][2][3][4] depends on the hypothesis that unusually distorted regions of spacetime
might permit matter to reach distant locations in less time
than light could in normal or undistorted spacetime. Although according to current theories matter is still required to travel subluminally with respect to the locally
distorted spacetime region, apparent FTL is not excluded
by general relativity. Examples of apparent FTL proposals are the Alcubierre drive and the traversable wormhole,
although their physical plausibility is uncertain.

1.2 Light spots and shadows

If a laser is swept across a distant object, the spot of laser

light can easily be made to move across the object at
a speed greater than c.[7] Similarly, a shadow projected
onto a distant object can be made to move across the object faster than c.[7] In neither case does the light travel
from the source to the object faster than c, nor does any
information travel faster than light.[7][8][9]

FTL travel of non-information

In the context of this article, FTL is the transmission of

information or matter faster than c, a constant equal to the
speed of light in a vacuum, which is 299,792,458 m/s (by
denition) or about 186,282.4 miles per second. This is
not quite the same as traveling faster than light, since:

Some processes propagate faster than c, but cannot 1.3 Apparent FTL propagation of static
eld eects
carry information (see examples in the sections immediately following).
Main article: Static eld
Light travels at speed c/n when not in a vacuum but
travelling through a medium with refractive index =
Since there is no retardation (or aberration) of the apn (causing refraction), and in some materials other
parent position of the source of a gravitational or electric
particles can travel faster than c/n (but still slower
static eld when the source moves with constant velocthan c), leading to Cherenkov radiation (see phase
ity, the static eld eect may seem at rst glance to
velocity below).
be transmitted faster than the speed of light. However, uniform motion of the static source may be reNeither of these phenomena violates special relativity or moved with a change in reference frame, causing the dicreates problems with causality, and thus neither qualies rection of the static eld to change immediately, at all
as FTL as described here.
distances. This is not a change of position which propa1

gates, and thus this change cannot be used to transmit

information from the source. No information or matter can be FTL-transmitted or propagated from source
to receiver/observer by an electromagnetic eld.citation
needed

1.4

Closing speeds

The rate at which two objects in motion in a single frame

of reference get closer together is called the mutual or
closing speed. This may approach twice the speed of
light, as in the case of two particles travelling at close
to the speed of light in opposite directions with respect to
the reference frame.
Imagine two fast-moving particles approaching each
other from opposite sides of a particle accelerator of the
collider type. The closing speed would be the rate at
which the distance between the two particles is decreasing. From the point of view of an observer standing at
rest relative to the accelerator, this rate will be slightly
less than twice the speed of light.
Special relativity does not prohibit this. It tells us that
it is wrong to use Galilean relativity to compute the velocity of one of the particles, as would be measured by
an observer traveling alongside the other particle. That
is, special relativity gives the right formula for computing
such relative velocity.

FTL TRAVEL OF NON-INFORMATION

1.6 How far can one travel from the Earth?

Since one might not travel faster than light, one might
conclude that a human can never travel further from the
earth than 40 light-years if the traveler is active between
the age of 20 and 60. A traveler would then never be able
to reach more than the very few star systems which exist
within the limit of 20-40 light-years from the Earth. This
is a mistaken conclusion: because of time dilation, the
traveler can travel thousands of light-years during their
40 active years. If the spaceship accelerates at a constant
1 g (in its own changing frame of reference), it will, after 354 days, reach speeds a little under the speed of light
(for an observer on Earth), and time dilation will increase
their lifespan to thousands of Earth years, seen from the
reference system of the Solar System, but the travelers
subjective lifespan will not thereby change. If the traveler
returns to the Earth, they will land thousands of years into
the Earths future. Their speed will not be seen as higher
than the speed of light by observers on Earth, and the traveler will not measure their speed as being higher than the
speed of light, but will see a length contraction of the universe in their direction of travel. And as the traveler turns
around to return, the Earth will seem to experience much
more time than the traveler does. So, although their (ordinary) speed cannot exceed c, the four-velocity (distance
as seen by Earth divided by their proper, i.e. subjective,
time) can be much greater than c. This is seen in statistical studies of muons traveling much further than c times
their half-life (at rest), if traveling close to c.[10]

It is instructive to compute the relative velocity of particles moving at v and -v in accelerator frame, which cor- 1.7 Phase velocities above c
responds to the closing speed of 2v > c. Expressing the
speeds in units of c, = v/c:
The phase velocity of an electromagnetic wave, when
traveling through a medium, can routinely exceed c, the
vacuum velocity of light. For example, this occurs in
most glasses at X-ray frequencies.[11] However, the phase
+
2
velocity of a wave corresponds to the propagation speed
rel =
=
1.
1 + 2
1 + 2
of a theoretical single-frequency (purely monochromatic)
component of the wave at that frequency. Such a wave
component must be innite in extent and of constant amplitude (otherwise it is not truly monochromatic), and so
1.5 Proper speeds
cannot convey any information.[12] Thus a phase velocity
above c does not imply the propagation of signals with a
If a spaceship travels to a planet one light-year (as mea- velocity above c.[13]
sured in the Earths rest frame) away from Earth at high
speed, the time taken to reach that planet could be less
than one year as measured by the travellers clock (al- 1.8 Group velocities above c
though it will always be more than one year as measured
by a clock on Earth). The value obtained by dividing The group velocity of a wave (e.g., a light beam) may
the distance traveled, as determined in the Earths frame, also exceed c in some circumstances.[14] In such cases,
by the time taken, measured by the travellers clock, is which typically at the same time involve rapid attenuation
known as a proper speed or a proper velocity. There is of the intensity, the maximum of the envelope of a pulse
no limit on the value of a proper speed as a proper speed may travel with a velocity above c. However, even this
does not represent a speed measured in a single inertial situation does not imply the propagation of signals with
frame. A light signal that left the Earth at the same time a velocity above c,[15] even though one may be tempted
as the traveller would always get to the destination before to associate pulse maxima with signals. The latter association has been shown to be misleading, basically bethe traveller.

1.10

Astronomical observations

cause the information on the arrival of a pulse can be obtained before the pulse maximum arrives. For example, if
some mechanism allows the full transmission of the leading part of a pulse while strongly attenuating the pulse
maximum and everything behind (distortion), the pulse
maximum is eectively shifted forward in time, while the
information on the pulse does not come faster than c without this eect.[16] However, group velocity can exceed c
in some parts of a Gaussian beam in vacuum (without
attenuation).[17] The diraction causes, that the peak of
pulse propagates faster, while overall power does not.

Universal expansion

Waves Imprint Characteristic

Polarization Signals

Density Waves

Earliest Time
Visible with Light

1 s

0.01 s

3 min

Cosmic Microwave Background

Nuclear Fusion Ends

1032 s

Nuclear Fusion Begins

Protons Formed

Quantum
Fluctuations
Big
Bang

Ination

Radius of the Visible Universe

Free Electrons
Scatter Light

380,000 yrs

Modern Universe

Ination
Generates
Two Types of
Waves

History of the Universe

Gravitational Waves

Neutral Hydrogen Forms

1.9

13.8 Billion yrs

Age of the Universe

History of the universe - gravitational waves are hypothesized

to arise from cosmic ination, a faster-than-light expansion just
after the Big Bang (17 March 2014).[18][19][20]

The expansion of the universe causes distant galaxies to

recede from us faster than the speed of light, if proper
distance and cosmological time are used to calculate the
speeds of these galaxies. However, in general relativity, velocity is a local notion, so velocity calculated using
comoving coordinates does not have any simple relation
to velocity calculated locally.[21] (See comoving distance
for a discussion of dierent notions of 'velocity' in cosmology.) Rules that apply to relative velocities in special relativity, such as the rule that relative velocities cannot increase past the speed of light, do not apply to relative velocities in comoving coordinates, which are often
described in terms of the expansion of space between
galaxies. This expansion rate is thought to have been at
its peak during the inationary epoch thought to have occurred in a tiny fraction of the second after the Big Bang
(models suggest the period would have been from around
1036 seconds after the Big Bang to around 1033 seconds), when the universe may have rapidly expanded by
a factor of around 1020 to 1030 .[22]
There are many galaxies visible in telescopes with red
shift numbers of 1.4 or higher. All of these are currently
traveling away from us at speeds greater than the speed of
light. Because the Hubble parameter is decreasing with

time, there can actually be cases where a galaxy that is

receding from us faster than light does manage to emit a
signal which reaches us eventually.[23][24]
Our eective particle horizon is the cosmic microwave
background (CMB), at redshift z 1100, because we cannot see beyond the surface of last scattering. Although
the last scattering surface is not at any xed comoving
coordinate, the current recession velocity of the points
from which the CMB was emitted is 3.2c. At the time
of emission their speed was 58.1c, assuming (M,)
= (0.3,0.7). Thus we routinely observe objects that are
receding faster than the speed of light and the Hubble
sphere is not a horizon. [25]
However, because the expansion of the universe is accelerating, it is projected that most galaxies will eventually cross a type of cosmological event horizon where
any light they emit past that point will never be able to
reach us at any time in the innite future,[26] because
the light never reaches a point where its peculiar velocity towards us exceeds the expansion velocity away from
us (these two notions of velocity are also discussed in
Comoving distance#Uses of the proper distance). The
current distance to this cosmological event horizon is
about 16 billion light-years, meaning that a signal from
an event happening at present would eventually be able to
reach us in the future if the event was less than 16 billion
light-years away, but the signal would never reach us if
the event was more than 16 billion light-years away.[24]

1.10 Astronomical observations

Apparent superluminal motion is observed in many
radio galaxies, blazars, quasars and recently also in
microquasars. The eect was predicted before it was observed by Martin Rees and can be explained as an optical
illusion caused by the object partly moving in the direction of the observer,[27] when the speed calculations assume it does not. The phenomenon does not contradict
the theory of special relativity. Interestingly, corrected
calculations show these objects have velocities close to
the speed of light (relative to our reference frame). They
are the rst examples of large amounts of mass moving
at close to the speed of light.[28] Earth-bound laboratories have only been able to accelerate small numbers of
elementary particles to such speeds.

1.11 Quantum mechanics

Certain phenomena in quantum mechanics, such as
quantum entanglement, might give the supercial impression of allowing communication of information faster
than light. According to the no-communication theorem
these phenomena do not allow true communication; they
only let two observers in dierent locations see the same
system simultaneously, without any way of controlling
what either sees. Wavefunction collapse can be viewed

FTL TRAVEL OF NON-INFORMATION

as an epiphenomenon of quantum decoherence, which in

turn is nothing more than an eect of the underlying local
time evolution of the wavefunction of a system and all of
its environment. Since the underlying behaviour doesn't
violate local causality or allow FTL it follows that neither does the additional eect of wavefunction collapse,
whether real or apparent.

to have crossed with a superluminal speed.[33]

There have been various reports in the popular press of

experiments on faster-than-light transmission in optics
most often in the context of a kind of quantum tunnelling
phenomenon. Usually, such reports deal with a phase velocity or group velocity faster than the vacuum velocity of
light. However, as stated above, a superluminal phase velocity cannot be used for faster-than-light transmission of
information. There has sometimes been confusion concerning the latter point. Additionally, a channel that permits such propagation cannot be laid out faster than the
speed of light.

the force falls o rapidly with distance, it is only measurable when the distance between the objects is extremely
small. Because the eect is due to virtual particles mediating a static eld eect, it is subject to the comments
about static elds discussed above.

Quantum teleportation transmits quantum information at

whatever speed is used to transmit the same amount of
classical information, likely the speed of light. This quantum information may theoretically be used in ways that
classical information can not, such as in quantum computations involving quantum information only available
to the recipient.

Main article: Hartman eect

The EPR paradox refers to a famous thought experiment

of Einstein, Podolski and Rosen that was realized experimentally for the rst time by Alain Aspect in 1981 and
1982 in the Aspect experiment. In this experiment, the
measurement of the state of one of the quantum systems
of an entangled pair apparently instantaneously forces the
other system (which may be distant) to be measured in
the complementary state. However, no information can
be transmitted this way; the answer to whether or not the
measurement actually aects the other quantum system
comes down to which interpretation of quantum mechanics one subscribes to.

The Hartman eect is the tunnelling eect through a barrier where the tunnelling time tends to a constant for large
barriers.[31] This was rst described by Thomas Hartman
in 1962.[32] This could, for instance, be the gap between
two prisms. When the prisms are in contact, the light
passes straight through, but when there is a gap, the light is
refracted. There is a nonzero probability that the photon
will tunnel across the gap rather than follow the refracted
path. For large gaps between the prisms the tunnelling
time approaches a constant and thus the photons appear

An experiment performed in 1997 by Nicolas Gisin at the

University of Geneva has demonstrated non-local quantum correlations between particles separated by over 10
kilometers.[35] But as noted earlier, the non-local correlations seen in entanglement cannot actually be used to
transmit classical information faster than light, so that
relativistic causality is preserved; see no-communication
theorem for further information. A 2008 quantum
physics experiment also performed by Nicolas Gisin and
his colleagues in Geneva, Switzerland has determined
that in any hypothetical non-local hidden-variables the-

However, an analysis by Herbert G. Winful from the

University of Michigan suggests that the Hartman eect
cannot actually be used to violate relativity by transmitting signals faster than c, because the tunnelling time
should not be linked to a velocity since evanescent
waves do not propagate.[34] The evanescent waves in
The uncertainty principle implies that individual photons the Hartman eect are due to virtual particles and a
may travel for short distances at speeds somewhat faster non-propagating static eld, as mentioned in the sections
(or slower) than c, even in a vacuum; this possibility must above for gravity and electromagnetism.
be taken into account when enumerating Feynman diagrams for a particle interaction.[29] However, it was shown
in 2011 that a single photon may not travel faster than 1.11.2 Casimir eect
c.[30] In quantum mechanics, virtual particles may travel
faster than light, and this phenomenon is related to the fact Main article: Casimir eect
that static eld eects (which are mediated by virtual particles in quantum terms) may travel faster than light (see In physics, the Casimir eect or Casimir-Polder force is
section on static elds above). However, macroscopically a physical force exerted between separate objects due to
these uctuations average out, so that photons do travel in resonance of vacuum energy in the intervening space bestraight lines over long (i.e., non-quantum) distances, and tween the objects. This is sometimes described in terms
they do travel at the speed of light on average. There- of virtual particles interacting with the objects, owing to
fore, this does not imply the possibility of superluminal the mathematical form of one possible way of calculatinformation transmission.
ing the strength of the eect. Because the strength of

1.11.1

Hartman eect

1.11.3 EPR paradox

Main article: EPR paradox

5
ory the speed of the quantum non-local connection (what
Einstein called spooky action at a distance) is at least
10,000 times the speed of light.[36]
1.11.4

Delayed choice quantum eraser

Main article: Delayed choice quantum eraser

Delayed choice quantum eraser (an experiment of Marlan
Scully) is a version of the EPR paradox in which the observation or not of interference after the passage of a photon through a double slit experiment depends on the conditions of observation of a second photon entangled with
the rst. The characteristic of this experiment is that
the observation of the second photon can take place at
a later time than the observation of the rst photon,[37]
which may give the impression that the measurement of
the later photons retroactively determines whether the
earlier photons show interference or not, although the
interference pattern can only be seen by correlating the
measurements of both members of every pair and so it
can't be observed until both photons have been measured,
ensuring that an experimenter watching only the photons going through the slit does not obtain information
about the other photons in an FTL or backwards-in-time
manner.[38][39]

FTL communication

Faster-than-light communication is, by Einstein's theory

of relativity, equivalent to time travel. According to Einsteins theory of special relativity, what we measure as
the speed of light in a vacuum (or near vacuum) is actually the fundamental physical constant c. This means that
all inertial observers, regardless of their relative velocity,
will always measure zero-mass particles such as photons
traveling at c in a vacuum. This result means that measurements of time and velocity in dierent frames are no
longer related simply by constant shifts, but are instead
related by Poincar transformations. These transformations have important implications:
The relativistic momentum of a massive particle
would increase with speed in such a way that at the
speed of light an object would have innite momentum.
To accelerate an object of non-zero rest mass to c
would require innite time with any nite acceleration, or innite acceleration for a nite amount of
time.
Either way, such acceleration requires innite energy.
Some observers with sub-light relative motion will
disagree about which occurs rst of any two events

that are separated by a space-like interval.[40] In

other words, any travel that is faster-than-light will
be seen as traveling backwards in time in some
other, equally valid, frames of reference,[41] or need
to assume the speculative hypothesis of possible
Lorentz violations at a presently unobserved scale
(for instance the Planck scale). Therefore, any theory which permits true FTL also has to cope with
time travel and all its associated paradoxes,[42] or
else to assume the Lorentz invariance to be a symmetry of thermodynamical statistical nature (hence
a symmetry broken at some presently unobserved
scale).
In special relativity the coordinate speed of light is
only guaranteed to be c in an inertial frame; in a noninertial frame the coordinate speed may be dierent
from c.[43] in general relativity no coordinate system
on a large region of curved spacetime is inertial,
so its permissible to use a global coordinate system
where objects travel faster than c, but in the local
neighborhood of any point in curved spacetime we
can dene a local inertial frame and the local speed
of light will be c in this frame,[44] with massive objects moving through this local neighborhood always
having a speed less than c in the local inertial frame.

3 Justications
3.1 Faster light (Casimir vacuum and
quantum tunnelling)
Einsteins equations of special relativity postulate that the
speed of light in a (near) vacuum is invariant in inertial
frames. That is, it will be the same from any frame of
reference moving at a constant speed. The equations
do not specify any particular value for the speed of the
light, which is an experimentally determined quantity for
a xed unit of length. Since 1983, the SI unit of length
(the meter) has been dened using the speed of light.
The experimental determination has been made in vacuum. However, the vacuum we know is not the only
possible vacuum which can exist. The vacuum has energy associated with it, called simply the vacuum energy,
which could perhaps be altered in certain cases.[45] When
vacuum energy is lowered, light itself has been predicted
to go faster than the standard value c. This is known
as the Scharnhorst eect. Such a vacuum can be produced by bringing two perfectly smooth metal plates together at near atomic diameter spacing. It is called a
Casimir vacuum. Calculations imply that light will go
faster in such a vacuum by a minuscule amount: a photon traveling between two plates that are 1 micrometer
apart would increase the photons speed by only about
one part in 1036 .[46] Accordingly, there has as yet been
no experimental verication of the prediction. A recent

6
analysis[47] argued that the Scharnhorst eect cannot be
used to send information backwards in time with a single set of plates since the plates rest frame would dene a preferred frame for FTL signalling. However,
with multiple pairs of plates in motion relative to one
another the authors noted that they had no arguments
that could guarantee the total absence of causality violations, and invoked Hawkings speculative chronology
protection conjecture which suggests that feedback loops
of virtual particles would create uncontrollable singularities in the renormalized quantum stress-energy on
the boundary of any potential time machine, and thus
would require a theory of quantum gravity to fully analyze. Other authors argue that Scharnhorsts original analysis, which seemed to show the possibility of faster-than-c
signals, involved approximations which may be incorrect,
so that it is not clear whether this eect could actually increase signal speed at all.[48]
The physicists Gnter Nimtz and Alfons Stahlhofen, of
the University of Cologne, claim to have violated relativity experimentally by transmitting photons faster than
the speed of light.[33] They say they have conducted an
experiment in which microwave photons relatively
low energy packets of light travelled instantaneously
between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to
3 ft (1 m) apart. Their experiment involved an optical phenomenon known as evanescent modes, and
they claim that since evanescent modes have an imaginary wave number, they represent a mathematical analogy to quantum tunnelling.[33] Nimtz has also claimed
that evanescent modes are not fully describable by the
Maxwell equations and quantum mechanics have to be
taken into consideration.[49] Other scientists such as Herbert G. Winful and Robert Helling have argued that in
fact there is nothing quantum-mechanical about Nimtzs
experiments, and that the results can be fully predicted by
the equations of classical electromagnetism (Maxwells
equations).[50][51]

3 JUSTIFICATIONS
must be greater than the barrier length in order for its
spectrum to be narrow enough to allow tunneling), but
is instead the lifetime of the energy stored in a standing
wave which forms inside the barrier. Since the stored
energy in the barrier is less than the energy stored in a
barrier-free region of the same length due to destructive
interference, the group delay for the energy to escape the
barrier region is shorter than it would be in free space,
which according to Winful is the explanation for apparently superluminal tunneling.[53][54]
A number of authors have published papers disputing
Nimtzs claim that Einstein causality is violated by his
experiments, and there are many other papers in the literature discussing why quantum tunneling is not thought
to violate causality.[55]
It was later claimed by the Keller group in Switzerland
that particle tunneling does indeed occur in zero real
time. Their tests involved tunneling electrons, where
the group argued a relativistic prediction for tunneling
time should be 500-600 attoseconds (an attosecond is one
quintillionth (1018 ) of a second). All that could be measured was 24 attoseconds, which is the limit of the test
accuracy.[56] Again, though, other physicists believe that
tunneling experiments in which particles appear to spend
anomalously short times inside the barrier are in fact fully
compatible with relativity, although there is disagreement
about whether the explanation involves reshaping of the
wave packet or other eects.[53][54][57]

3.2 Give up (absolute) relativity

Because of the strong empirical support for special relativity, any modications to it must necessarily be quite
subtle and dicult to measure. The best-known attempt
is doubly special relativity, which posits that the Planck
length is also the same in all reference frames, and is associated with the work of Giovanni Amelino-Camelia and
Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: For the time being, Joo Magueijo.
this is the only violation of special relativity that I know
There are speculative theories that claim inertia is proof. However, other physicists say that this phenomenon
duced by the combined mass of the universe (e.g., Machs
does not allow information to be transmitted faster than
principle), which implies that the rest frame of the unilight. Aephraim Steinberg, a quantum optics expert at
verse might be preferred by conventional measurements
the University of Toronto, Canada, uses the analogy of a
of natural law. If conrmed, this would imply special reltrain traveling from Chicago to New York, but dropping
ativity is an approximation to a more general theory, but
o train cars at each station along the way, so that the
since the relevant comparison would (by denition) be
center of the ever shrinking main train moves forward at
outside the observable universe, it is dicult to imagine
each stop; in this way, the speed of the center of the train
(much less construct) experiments to test this hypothesis.
[52]
exceeds the speed of any of the individual cars.
Herbert G. Winful argues that the train analogy is a variant of the reshaping argument for superluminal tunneling velocities, but he goes on to say that this argument
is not actually supported by experiment or simulations,
which actually show that the transmitted pulse has the
same length and shape as the incident pulse.[50] Instead,
Winful argues that the group delay in tunneling is not actually the transit time for the pulse (whose spatial length

3.3 Spacetime distortion

Although the theory of special relativity forbids objects
to have a relative velocity greater than light speed, and
general relativity reduces to special relativity in a local
sense (in small regions of spacetime where curvature is
negligible), general relativity does allow the space be-

3.6

Superuid theories of physical vacuum

tween distant objects to expand in such a way that they

have a "recession velocity" which exceeds the speed of
light, and it is thought that galaxies which are at a distance of more than about 14 billion light-years from us today have a recession velocity which is faster than light.[58]
Miguel Alcubierre theorized that it would be possible to
create an Alcubierre drive, in which a ship would be enclosed in a warp bubble where the space at the front
of the bubble is rapidly contracting and the space at the
back is rapidly expanding, with the result that the bubble can reach a distant destination much faster than a
light beam moving outside the bubble, but without objects inside the bubble locally traveling faster than light.
However, several objections raised against the Alcubierre
drive appear to rule out the possibility of actually using
it in any practical fashion. Another possibility predicted
by general relativity is the traversable wormhole, which
could create a shortcut between arbitrarily distant points
in space. As with the Alcubierre drive, travelers moving
through the wormhole would not locally move faster than
light travelling through the wormhole alongside them, but
they would be able to reach their destination (and return
to their starting location) faster than light traveling outside
the wormhole.
Dr. Gerald Cleaver, associate professor of physics at
Baylor University, and Richard Obousy, a Baylor graduate student, theorize that by manipulating the extra spatial dimensions of string theory around a spaceship with
an extremely large amount of energy, it would create a
bubble that could cause the ship to travel faster than the
speed of light. To create this bubble, the physicists believe manipulating the 10th spatial dimension would alter
the dark energy in three large spatial dimensions: height,
width and length. Cleaver said positive dark energy is
currently responsible for speeding up the expansion rate
of our universe as time moves on.[59]

7
nos, mesons, and photons.[65] The breaking of rotation
and boost invariance causes direction dependence in the
theory as well as unconventional energy dependence that
introduces novel eects, including Lorentz-violating neutrino oscillations and modications to the dispersion relations of dierent particle species, which naturally could
make particles move faster than light.
In some models of broken Lorentz symmetry, it is postulated that the symmetry is still built into the most fundamental laws of physics, but that spontaneous symmetry breaking of Lorentz invariance[66] shortly after the
Big Bang could have left a relic eld throughout the
universe which causes particles to behave dierently depending on their velocity relative to the eld;[67] however,
there are also some models where Lorentz symmetry is
broken in a more fundamental way. If Lorentz symmetry
can cease to be a fundamental symmetry at Planck scale
or at some other fundamental scale, it is conceivable that
particles with a critical speed dierent from the speed of
light be the ultimate constituents of matter.
In current models of Lorentz symmetry violation, the
phenomenological parameters are expected to be energydependent. Therefore, as widely recognized,[68][69] existing low-energy bounds cannot be applied to high-energy
phenomena; however, many searches for Lorentz violation at high energies have been carried out using the
Standard-Model Extension.[65] Lorentz symmetry violation is expected to become stronger as one gets closer to
the fundamental scale.

Another recent theory (see EPR paradox above) resulting from the analysis of an EPR communication set up,
has the simple device based on removing the eective retarded time terms in the Lorentz transform to yield a preferred absolute reference frame.[70][71] This frame cannot be used to do physics (i.e., compute the inuence of
light-speed limited signals) but it provides an objective,
absolute frame all could agree upon, if superluminal communication is possible. If this sounds indulgent, it allows
3.4 Heim theory
simultaneity, absolute space and time and a determinisIn 1977, a paper on Heim theory theorized that it may be tic universe (along with decoherence theory) whilst the
possible to travel faster than light by using magnetic elds status-quo permits time travel/causality paradoxes, subjectivity in the measurement process and multiple unito enter a higher-dimensional space.[60]
verses.

3.5

Lorentz symmetry violation

3.6 Superuid theories of physical vacuum

Main articles: Modern searches for Lorentz violation

and Standard-Model Extension
Main article: Superuid vacuum
The possibility that Lorentz symmetry may be violated
has been seriously considered in the last two decades, particularly after the development of a realistic eective eld
theory that describes this possible violation, the so-called
Standard-Model Extension.[61][62][63] This general framework has allowed experimental searches by ultra-high energy cosmic-ray experiments[64] and a wide variety of experiments in gravity, electrons, protons, neutrons, neutri-

In this approach the physical vacuum is viewed as the

quantum superuid which is essentially non-relativistic
whereas the Lorentz symmetry is not an exact symmetry of nature but rather the approximate description valid only for the small uctuations of the superuid background.[72] Within the framework of the approach a theory was proposed in which the physical
vacuum is conjectured to be the quantum Bose liquid

whose ground-state wavefunction is described by the

logarithmic Schrdinger equation. It was shown that the
relativistic gravitational interaction arises as the smallamplitude collective excitation mode[73] whereas relativistic elementary particles can be described by the
particle-like modes in the limit of low momenta.[74] The
important fact is that at very high velocities the behavior of the particle-like modes becomes distinct from the
relativistic one - they can reach the speed of light limit at
nite energy; also, faster-than-light propagation is possible without requiring moving objects to have imaginary
mass.[75][76]

4
4.1

Time of ight of neutrinos

GENERAL RELATIVITY

5 Tachyons
Main article: Tachyon
In special relativity, it is impossible to accelerate an object to the speed of light, or for a massive object to move
at the speed of light. However, it might be possible for
an object to exist which always moves faster than light.
The hypothetical elementary particles with this property
are called tachyonic particles. Attempts to quantize them
failed to produce faster-than-light particles, and instead
illustrated that their presence leads to an instability.[87][88]
Various theorists have suggested that the neutrino might
have a tachyonic nature,[89][90][91][92][93] while others have
disputed the possibility.[94]

MINOS experiment

Main article: MINOS

In 2007 the MINOS collaboration reported results measuring the ight-time of 3 GeV neutrinos yielding a speed
exceeding that of light by 1.8-sigma signicance.[77]
However, those measurements were considered to be statistically consistent with neutrinos traveling at the speed
of light.[78] After the detectors for the project were upgraded in 2012, MINOS corrected their initial result and
found agreement with the speed of light. Further measurements are going to be conducted.[79]

4.2

OPERA neutrino anomaly

Main article: Faster-than-light neutrino anomaly

On September 22, 2011, a paper[80] from the OPERA
Collaboration indicated detection of 17 and 28 GeV
muon neutrinos, sent 730 kilometers (454 miles) from
CERN near Geneva, Switzerland to the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy, traveling faster than light
by a relative amount of 2.48105 (approximately 1 in
40,000), a statistic with 6.0-sigma signicance.[81] On
18 November 2011, a second follow-up experiment by
OPERA scientists conrmed their initial results.[82][83]
However, scientists were skeptical about the results
of these experiments, the signicance of which was
disputed.[84] In March 2012, the ICARUS collaboration
failed to reproduce the OPERA results with their equipment, detecting neutrino travel time from CERN to the
Gran Sasso National Laboratory indistinguishable from
the speed of light.[85] Later the OPERA team reported
two aws in their equipment set-up that had caused errors far outside their original condence interval: a ber
optic cable attached improperly, which caused the apparently faster-than-light measurements, and a clock oscillator ticking too fast.[86]

6 General relativity
General relativity was developed after special relativity
to include concepts like gravity. It maintains the principle that no object can accelerate to the speed of light in
the reference frame of any coincident observer. However, it permits distortions in spacetime that allow an object to move faster than light from the point of view of a
distant observer. One such distortion is the Alcubierre
drive, which can be thought of as producing a ripple
in spacetime that carries an object along with it. Another possible system is the wormhole, which connects
two distant locations as though by a shortcut. Both distortions would need to create a very strong curvature in
a highly localized region of space-time and their gravity elds would be immense. To counteract the unstable
nature, and prevent the distortions from collapsing under
their own 'weight', one would need to introduce hypothetical exotic matter or negative energy.
General relativity also recognizes that any means of
faster-than-light travel could also be used for time travel.
This raises problems with causality. Many physicists believe that the above phenomena are impossible and that
future theories of gravity will prohibit them. One theory states that stable wormholes are possible, but that
any attempt to use a network of wormholes to violate
causality would result in their decay. In string theory,
Eric G. Gimon and Petr Hoava have argued[95] that
in a supersymmetric ve-dimensional Gdel universe,
quantum corrections to general relativity eectively cut
o regions of spacetime with causality-violating closed
timelike curves. In particular, in the quantum theory a
smeared supertube is present that cuts the spacetime in
such a way that, although in the full spacetime a closed
timelike curve passed through every point, no complete
curves exist on the interior region bounded by the tube.

Variable speed of light

Main article: Variable speed of light

In physics, the speed of light in a vacuum is assumed to
be a constant. However, hypotheses exist that make the
armation about the speed of light not being a constant.
The interpretation of this statement is as follows.

Faster-than-light neutrino anomaly

Tachyonic eld
Tachyon
Superluminal motion, apparent faster-than-light
motion

The speed of light is a dimensional quantity and so, as has Science ction
been emphasized in this context by Joo Magueijo, it cannot be measured.[96] Measurable quantities in physics are,
Animorphs (Zero Space)
without exception, dimensionless, although they are often
constructed as ratios of dimensional quantities. For ex Battlestar (reimagining)
ample, when the height of a mountain is measured, what
is really measured is the ratio of its height to the length
Jump drive
of a meter stick. The conventional SI system of units
is based on seven basic dimensional quantities, namely
Jumpgate
distance, mass, time, electric current, thermodynamic
temperature, amount of substance, and luminous inten TARDIS (Doctor Who)
sity.[97] These units are dened to be independent and so
cannot be described in terms of each other. As an al Warp drive
ternative to using a particular system of units, one can
reduce all measurements to dimensionless quantities ex Hyperdrive
pressed in terms of ratios between the quantities being measured and various fundamental constants such as
Hyperspace
Newtons constant, the speed of light and Plancks constant; physicists can dene at least 26 dimensionless con Starburst (Farscape)
stants which can be expressed in terms of these sorts of
ratios and which are currently thought to be independent
Slipstream (science ction)
of one another.[98] By manipulating the basic dimensional
constants one can also construct the Planck time, Planck
Skip drive
length and Planck energy which make a good system of
units for expressing dimensional measurements, known
Innite Improbability Drive
as Planck units.
Magueijos proposal used a dierent set of units, a choice
which he justies with the claim that some equations will
be simpler in these new units. In the new units he xes
the ne structure constant, a quantity which some people, using units in which the speed of light is xed, have
claimed is time-dependent. Thus in the system of units
in which the ne structure constant is xed, the observational claim is that the speed of light is time-dependent.

Inertialess drive
Stargate (device)
Ansible
Mass Eect Relay
Macross Space Fold

See also

Main pages: Category:Faster-than-light travel and

Category:Faster-than-light communication

Intergalactic travel
Krasnikov tube

FTL:2448 by Tri Tac Games

Interdimensional Drive (Earth Final Conict)
Kearny-Fuchida jump drive (BattleTech)
Ultrawave
FTL drive (Battlestar Galactica)

Alcubierre drive

FTL engine (Eureka)

WheelerFeynman absorber theory

FTL: Faster Than Light

10

9 NOTES

Notes

[1] Gonzalez-Diaz, P. F. (2000). Warp drive spacetime (PDF). Physical Review D 62 (4): 044005.
arXiv:gr-qc/9907026. Bibcode:2000PhRvD..62d4005G.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.62.044005.
[2] Loup, F.; Waite, D.; Halerewicz, E. Jr. (2001). Reduced
total energy requirements for a modied Alcubierre warp
drive spacetime. arXiv:gr-qc/0107097.
[3] Visser, M.; Bassett, B.; Liberati, S. (2000). Superluminal censorship. Nuclear Physics B: Proceedings
267270.
arXiv:gr-qc/9810026.
Supplement 88:
Bibcode:2000NuPhS..88..267V.
doi:10.1016/S09205632(00)00782-9.
[4] Visser, M.; Bassett, B.; Liberati, S. (1999). Perturbative
superluminal censorship and the null energy condition.
AIP Conference Proceedings 493: 301305. arXiv:grqc/9908023. doi:10.1063/1.1301601. ISBN 1-56396905-X.
[5] See Salters Horners Advanced Physics A2 Student Book,
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[6] see http://www.oarval.org/furthest.htm
[7] Gibbs, Philip (1997). Is Faster-Than-Light Travel or
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0-8229-5926-7. Extract of page 107
[9] Steane, Andrew (2012). The Wonderful World of Relativity: A Precise Guide for the General Reader. Oxford
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[10] Special Theory of Relativity
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11

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=
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Delayed Choice Quantum
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[62] Colladay, Don;

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Stahlhofen. arXiv:0709.2736 [quant-ph].
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[52] Anderson, Mark (1824 August 2007). Light seems to
defy its own speed limit. New Scientist 195 (2617). p.
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[65] Kosteleck, V. Alan;

Russell, Neil (2011).
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12

[66] Kosteleck, V. Alan; and Samuel, S.; Spontaneous Breaking of Lorentz Symmetry in String Theory, Physical Review
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[79] MINOS reports new measurement of neutrino velocity.

Fermilab today. June 8, 2012. Retrieved June 8, 2012.

[67] PhysicsWeb - Breaking Lorentz symmetry.

Web.archive.org. 2004-04-05. Archived from the
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[68] Mavromatos, Nick E.; Testing models for quantum gravity,

CERN Courier, http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/
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[69] Overbye, Dennis; Interpreting the Cosmic Rays, The New

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[82] Overbye, Dennis (18 November 2011). Scientists Report

Second Sighting of Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos. New
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11.2

Proposed FTL Methods links

[96] Magueijo, Joo; Albrecht, Andreas (1999). A time

varying speed of light as a solution to cosmological
puzzles. Physical Review D 59 (4). arXiv:astroph/9811018.
Bibcode:1999PhRvD..59d3516A.
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[97] SI base units.
[98] constants.

10

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Falla, D. F.; Floyd, M. J. (2002). Superluminal motion in astronomy. European Journal of

Physics 23: 6981. Bibcode:2002EJPh...23...69F.
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Kaku, Michio (2008). Faster than Light. Physics
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978-0-7139-9992-1.
Nimtz, Gnter (2008). Zero Time Space. WileyVCH. ISBN 978-3-527-40735-4.
Cramer, J. G. (2009). Faster-than-Light Implications of Quantum Entanglement and Nonlocality.
In Millis, M. G.; et al. Frontiers of Propulsion Science. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. pp. 509529. ISBN 1-56347-956-7.

11

External links

11.1

Scientic links

Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the

OPERA detector in the CNGS beam
Encyclopedia of laser physics and technology on
superluminal transmission, with more details on
phase and group velocity, and on causality
July 22, 1997, The New York Times Company: Signal Travels Farther and Faster Than Light Far Apart,
2 Particles Respond Faster Than Light Archives
Markus Pssel: Faster-than-light (FTL) speeds in
tunneling experiments: an annotated bibliography
Alcubierre, Miguel; The Warp Drive: Hyper-Fast
Travel Within General Relativity, Classical and
Quantum Gravity 11 (1994), L73L77
A systemized view of superluminal wave propagation
Relativity and FTL Travel FAQ
Usenet Physics FAQ: is FTL travel or communication Possible?

13
Superluminal
Relativity, FTL and causality
Superluminal velocity fusing with Einstein special
relativity
Stimulated
Generation
of
Superluminal Light Pulses via Four-Wave Mixing
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.173902

11.2 Proposed FTL Methods links

Conical and paraboloidal superluminal particle accelerators
Relativity and FTL (=Superluminal motion) Travel
Homepage

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12.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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Faster-than-light Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light?oldid=703618411 Contributors: Vicki Rosenzweig, Bryan

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