Resumo:
The locality principle is respected by the special and general theory of relativity. Consequently,
the speed of light is the maximum speed at which information can travel. However,
by the Hubble-Lemaitre law, we know that two moving observers can separate at speeds
greater than the speed of light. Furthermore, the theory of cosmic inflation also implies
the superluminal movement of comoving observers in the first moments of our Universe [8].
With this physical motivation, Alcubierre [2] constructed a solution of general relativity
that allows superluminal travels without violating causality. His solution inspired the
general mathematical definition of warp drives given by Natario [22] and the solitonic
behavior of Fell-Heisenberg [10]. In this thesis, we will focus on two questions: first, based
on Natario’s definition, we study the “observer problem” in warp drives, and second, we
establish constraints for gradient shift vectors to represent physical warp drives in the
Fell-Heisenberg metric.
