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[–] BakedMofoBread 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

Holy shit!!!

Can someone with formal training in theoretical physics give me a 10,000 foot view answer to the following question: Does this mean we are on the trail of Negative Energy and thus a practicable realization of Alculbierre Drive?

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[–] littul_kitton 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

It's just an interesting trick. Nothing was given negative mass. Part of a larger system was given a negative effective mass, with the unusual behavior powered by lasers.

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[–] BakedMofoBread ago 

Ah! I understand. Thank you very much.

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[–] auto_turret 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Exactly what I'm left to wonder after reading this. Please oh please let it be a possibility! Even a tiny one!

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[–] glugglug 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

The energy part of this is a really good point. Would a negative mass object emit energy when you speed it up?

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[–] revfelix 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

I'm not a physicist but I have consumed a lot of sci-fi so I'm fully qualified to pretend I know what I'm talking about. Short answer is no. Longer answer is still no but it is a step towards something even faster. An Alcubierre drive warps the underlying fabric of spacetime to avoid violating the local speed of light, but the matter within the warp bubble still has mass, and in fact that mass is what drags your ship along the shifting gravity well your drive produces, like a surfer riding a wave. Negative matter mass however, is a type of exotic matter which could theoretically be used to stabilize the throat of an artificially created wormhole, either for the purpose of opening a hyperspace window or ideally linking directly to your destination. A much better proposition altogether as that also enables FTL communication without having to worry about generating a quantum entangled system, though entanglement would of course be far more secure in that there would be no way to intercept the signal.