On the impossibility of superluminal travel: the warp drive lesson

Understand

The question of whether it is possible or not to surpass the speed of light is already centennial.

• The special theory of relativity took the existence of a speed limit as a principle, the light postulate, which has proven to be enormously predictive.
• Here we discuss some of its twists and turns when general relativity and quantum mechanics come into play.
• In particular, we discuss one of the most interesting proposals for faster than light travel: warp drives.