Limits and Signatures of Relativistic Spaceflight

Ulvi Yurtsever; Steven Wilkinson

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arXiv · 1503.05845

Limits and Signatures of Relativistic Spaceflight

Ulvi Yurtsever·Steven Wilkinson

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Abstract

While special relativity imposes an absolute speed limit at the speed of light, our Universe is not empty Minkowski spacetime. The constituents that fill the interstellar/intergalactic vacuum, including the cosmic microwave background photons, impose a lower speed limit on any object travelling at relativistic velocities. Scattering of cosmic microwave phtotons from an ultra-relativistic object may create radiation with a characteristic signature allowing the detection of such objects at large distances.

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Ulvi Yurtsever, Steven Wilkinson. 2015-03-13. Limits and Signatures of Relativistic Spaceflight. https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05845

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