A ‘warp drive’ with reasonable total energy requirements

I show how a minor modification of the Alcubierre geometry can dramatically improve the total energy requirements for a ‘warp bubble’ that can be used to transport macroscopic objects. A spacetime is presented for which the total negative mass needed is only in the order of grams, accompanied by a negligible amount of positive energy. This constitutes a reduction of the absolute value of the energy by 65 orders of magnitude. The new geometry satisfies the quantum inequality concerning WEC violations and exhibits the same advantages as the original Alcubierre spacetime. † [email protected]