Question: The higgs boson feild draws certain molecules to the centre of the feild, assuming that the large haydron collider confurms the existance of such a feild, could that be used to create a alcubeirre drive?

Carol White answered on 25 Jun 2012:

Wow watsonjc06 – you’re really up to date with your theoretical physics!

For anyone else reading, the “Alcubierre warp drive” is a theoretical tool that would mean spaceships would travel huge distances in very very very quickly – by altering the space-time continuum around the spaceship (think Star Trek!)

This relatively new theory (from the 90’s) is mostly ignored by scientists because it’s quite a bold idea that assumes that the Higgs Boson particle exists. But Alcubierre has based his theory on solving Einstein’s equations, so maybe there is hope – it would be pretty cool!

Keep your eyes and ears open though, as CERN are due to release a new statement about their search for the Higgs Boson particle next month… maybe Alcubierre was onto something!