In what is known as the Alcubierre drive – which was first proposed in 1994 – a warp drive could be created by wrapping a ship in negative energy and then manipulating spacetime. By expanding spacetime behind the ship while contracting it in the front, a warp bubble (and ship) would travel along the wave. In theory, relativistic effects would not apply, as the ship would be carried along with the region of spacetime.

Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy are the coauthors of a new paper that brings together aspects of general relativity and string theory to create an effective warp drive. Mathematically, of course.

In M-theory, a proposed 11th dimension unites five separate string theories, and this dimension is the focus of Cleaver and Obousy paper. Mathematically, they shrink and expand the dimension to create the needed dark energy for the warp bubble.

Of course unimaginable amounts of energy would be needed to achieve such a result… not to mention that there isn’t a known gadget that could do such a thing. So, don’t expect a warp drive coming anytime soon. (Unless of course, one is already on its way).