Can dark energy be used for the Alcubierre drive as a substitute for negative mass? After all, to make the Alcubierre drive work, it is necessary to expand the universe behind it, and that is what dark energy does. I saw a recent interview with Miguel Alcubierre where he mentioned this and said that it may be possible, but I would like to understand more.
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$\begingroup$ Small problem: we don't even know what dark energy is! $\endgroup$– GertCommented Sep 19, 2020 at 15:28
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1$\begingroup$ Could you please provide a link to the interview with Mr. Alcubierre? $\endgroup$– Martin VeselyCommented Sep 20, 2020 at 6:45
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2$\begingroup$ @MartinVesely Here is it youtube.com/watch?v=JafY92PhgKU I don't know the timing where he talks about dark energy, and he doesn't do it in much detail. But if you view it feel free to modify my question with the timing. $\endgroup$– J. DoeCommented Sep 20, 2020 at 8:41
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1$\begingroup$ @J.Doe: Thanks, I am interested in the interview itself. I did not intent to modify your question. :-) $\endgroup$– Martin VeselyCommented Sep 21, 2020 at 7:14
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In the specific case of Alcubierre's geometry, the stress-energy tensor computed from it doesn't match the stress-energy tensor of dark energy.
In general, you can take any warp-tube geometry that even vaguely resembles Alcubierre's and put it in a "antitelephone" configuration that contains closed causal loops. This is a big problem by itself because it means you can travel into your own past, but it also rules out a tube made of dark energy, because there's a theorem (due to Stephen Hawking) that a spacetime with closed causal loops must violate the weak energy condition, and dark energy doesn't violate it.
