Computer Tensor Codes to Design the War Drive
From The Space Library
Author - C. Maccone
Co-Author(s) -
JBIS Volume # - 61
Page # - 358-363
Year - 2008
Keywords - Warp drive, general relativity, quantum field theory, symbolic manipulators.
JBIS Reference Code # - 2008.61.358
Number of Pages - 6
[edit] Abstract
To address problems in Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) and design the Warp Drive one needs sheer computing capabilities. This is because General Relativity (GR) and Quantum Field Theory (QFT) are so mathematically sophisticated that the amount of analytical calculations is prohibitive and one can hardly do all of them by hand. In this paper we make a comparative review of the main tensor calculus capabilities of the three most advanced and commercially available "symbolic manipulator" codes. We also point out that currently one faces such a variety of different conventions in tensor calculus that it is difficult or impossible to compare results obtained by different scholars in GR and QFT. Mathematical physicists, experimental physicists and engineers have each their own way of customizing tensors, especially by using different metric signatures, different metric determinant signs, different definitions of the basic Riemann and Ricci tensors, and by adopting different systems of physical units. This chaos greatly hampers progress toward the design of the Warp Drive. It is thus suggested that NASA would be a suitable organization to establish standards in symbolic tensor calculus and anyone working in BPP should adopt these standards. Alternatively other institutions, like CERN in Europe, might consider the challenge of starting the preliminary implementation of a Universal Tensor Code to design the Warp Drive.
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