Supervisor: Dmitri Fedorov

Consider the following scenario: You have just outrun the rebellion fleet just to arrive at a volatile nearby star emitting hazardous solar flares, igniting and damaging your FTL engine A Pirate ship, apparently oblivious to the danger of the nearby sun, moves into attack. You quickly start to repair your engine while your captain turns off the oxygen to redirect power to the shields. During this chaos you wander; How do FTL engines really work? What solution to Einstein’s field equation do they use? And don’t they violate causality?

If these are the kinds of questions you ask yourself on a daily basis, then I have a student colloquium for you. Here I will explain the basis of General Relativity, theories of super luminal travel and the challenges thereof. WARNING: I will not discuss when and when not to open the air vents and turn off oxygen to extinguish fire and power your FTL engine thus “safely” escaping pirates and solar flares just to arrive in the midst of asteroid fields and even more pirates.