The speed of light (300,000km/s) is the fastest possible speed that the laws of nature can allow. Or at least that’s what Albert Einstein thought. But what if the great physicist was wrong? No disrespect intended for him, but everybody makes mistakes.
Erik Lentz, a physicist from Göttingen University in Germany, published a study in Classical and Quantum Gravity, where he claims that there might be a way for solitons to exceed the speed of light. Solitons are quantum or quasiparticles, and Lentz believes that there might be a way to make them transport time-like observers at speeds faster than light. The study paper in question seems to overcome the barrier of violation of general relativity that a superluminal speed would normally impose. Instead, the research proposes a class of soliton solutions that have their source in purely positive energy densities and that are capable of speeds faster than light.
Traveling faster than the speed of light might be possible, but not now
The research has taken one step further toward making superluminal space travel possible, but there’s still a massive catch.
Here’s an important statement issued by Erik Lentz himself:
This work has moved the problem of faster-than-light travel one step away from theoretical research in fundamental physics and closer to engineering. The next step is to figure out how to bring down the astronomical amount of energy needed to within the range of today’s technologies, such as a large modern nuclear fission power plant. Then we can talk about building the first prototypes.
If it will indeed be possible one day to travel at the speed of light, reaching the nearest star to ours, meaning Alpha Centauri, would take only 4 years and a few months. Now try to imagine what surpassing such a speed can mean! That’s mind-boggling!