Miguel Alcubierre

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Miguel Alcubierre bigraphy, stories - Mexican theoretical physicist

Miguel Alcubierre : biography

1964 –

Miguel Alcubierre Moya (born 1964, Mexico City) is a Mexican theoretical physicist. He obtained a degree in physics, and a Master of Science in theoretical physics at the School of Science of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).

Biography

At the end of 1990, Alcubierre moved to Wales to attend graduate school at the University of Wales, Cardiff, receiving his doctorate through study of numerical general relativity. After 1996 he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany, developing new numerical techniques used in the description of black holes. Since 2002, he has worked at the Nuclear Sciences Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he conducts research in numerical relativity, employing computers to formulate and solve the physical equations first proposed by Albert Einstein. The solitary wave solutions proposed by Alcubierre for the Einsteinian field equations may possibly prove general relativity consistent with the experimentally verified non-locality of quantum mechanics. This work militates against the idea that quantum non-locality would ultimately require abandoning the mathematical structure of general relativity.

On 11 June 2012, Miguel Alcubierre was appointed Director of the Nuclear Sciences Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Textbook

Introduction to 3+1 Numerical Relativity (International Series of Monographs on Physics, Paperback, 2012, ISBN 978-0199656158)

May 1994 paper

Alcubierre is best known for the proposal of "The Warp Drive: Hyper-fast travel within general relativity" which appeared in the science journal Classical and Quantum Gravity. In this, he describes the Alcubierre drive, a theoretical means of traveling faster than light that does not violate the physical principle that nothing can locally travel faster than light. In this paper, he constructed a model that might transport a volume of flat space inside a "bubble" of curved space. This bubble is driven forward by a local expansion of space-time behind it, and an opposite contraction in front of it, so that theoretically a spaceship would be placed in motion by forces generated in the change made by space-time.

Media appearances

Miguel Alcubierre made a special appearance on the TV productions "How William Shatner Changed the World" and Michio Kaku’s Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible, in which his warp bubble theory was discussed.

Alcubierre has been twice invited to interviews on radio station Radio Educación XEEP (1060 AM), first on 18 February 2011, and later on 4 March 2011, on the technology-related talk show Interfase, where he explained his views about the current state of scientific and technology research in Mexico, and gave a brief introduction to his warp drive model and how it came to be.

(Spanish) Entrevista realizada a Alcubierre en Radio Nacional de España