Warped space-time for phonons moving in a perfect nonrelativistic fluid

Abstract

We construct a kinematical analogue of superluminal travel in the ``warped'' space-times curved by gravitation, in the form of ``super-phononic'' travel in the effective space-times of perfect nonrelativistic fluids. These warp-field space-times are most easily generated by considering a solid object that is placed as an obstruction in an otherwise uniform flow. No violation of any condition on the positivity of energy is necessary, because the effective curved space-times for the phonons are ruled by the Euler and continuity equations, and not by the Einstein field equations.

7 pages, 1 figure. Version as published; references updated