RE: starship-design: Zero Point Energy

["Walker, Chris" <Chris.Walker@BSKYB.COM>]

> One idea I heard was that virtual partical ALMOST always ae reabsorbed,
but 
> sometimes they separte out which can cause new mass creation in the
universe. 
> Maybe we can artificially up the odds to get the fuel we want.
> 
> Kelly
> 

Is this separation you mention the same as what happens with Hawking
radiation? A virtual particle pair pops into existence very close to the
event horizon of a black hole. One of the particles escapes and the other
doesn't, thereby contributing negative energy to the black hole.

</Inserts tongue into cheek/>
So maybe one method would be to have a drive based around a singularity. I
remember an episode of ST: TNG ("Timescape") which mentioned that Romulan
ships are powered by artificial singularities...maybe they figured this out
;)

Seriously though, if Hawking radiation means that negative energy can exist,
isn't that good news for the Alcubierre drive? I suppose we just have to
figure out how to create -ve energy, if indeed we ever can.

Chris