Does my fictional FTL Travel idea suck?

I'm currently designing a sci-fi idea which uses a form of FTL, space station accessed, solar system travel technology and I just want to know whether it sounds stupid or if there's a mistake in the science (though the science behind it is pretty speculative by the very nature of it being FTL). The form of travel in my idea are called the Casimir Controlled Access Highways which are solar system connected artificial wormholes made-up of generated Gravitons that create an inner energy vacuum that allows for the Higgs Field of ships that pass through to be lifted, though the inside remains the same with Higgs Boson technology, so that the ship travels faster than the speed of light.

Are you saying that the ships passing through the wormholes become temporarily massless, and that's why they're able to go to FTL?

Yes. Everything inside the wormhole, with my loose usage of the Casimir Effect and fictional Higgs Boson manipulation tech, has it's mass lifted so that the particles travel faster than the speed of light. But the inside of the ship stays the same as our universe. The idea's a mixture of the Alcubierre drive, Hyperspace and wormholes.

Having an objects mass removed would simply force it to go at light speed, rather than faster than it; it would also be subject to time dilation. An object with imaginary mass, however can move faster than light, and backwards/forwards in time; sidestepping both the issue of speed and time dilation.

But I imagine your explanation would work fine; those who would read it are either not going to know better or will be willing to suspend their disbelief.

I'm hoping people react like that. I've been doing research into FTL and physics for this idea and it's been killing me with it's staggering complexity. The Casimir effect (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/FTL.html#12) is supposed to be my way of allowing for negative mass based travel.

Let me just add that the idea of the tube, in accordance with that time dilitation point, is that what goes in one end comes out instantly out of the other (basically teleportation).

This idea sounds a lot like the Mass Relays in Mass Effect.

In my opinion, you just need the Casimir effect. The negative matter associated with it will create the wormholes just fine.

As for your idea, we don't know yet how gravitons might interact with the Casimir effect - or with the Higgs field, for that matter. Agree with the notion that a ship exempted from the Higgs field would behave like a massless particle.

The whole "graviton" part is the most fictional part of the technology. It's supposed to be my way of compensating for the limitations of the Casimir Effect's non conductive plate requirement where the gravitons, as a tube, can create a vacuum. It's more feasible than solar system spanning length tubes of metal and I've created a few ideas on the physics of artificial gravitons and the ways in which they work. The additional Higgs Boson tech I think would be still be needed to keep the ship's actual inner mass, and living crew, intact. And yes the idea does sound like the Mass Relays but that's probably because they're both wormhole, mass affecting, FTL Systems.

You really need to read this, esp. the comments, and esp. Luke's, where the science gets discussed.

TL/DR: what you are describing sounds just about right, but apparently you can anchor this thing on the surface of a planet, and drive right on over on a bicycle if you want.

Thanks for the link, I'm looking through it right now.

You can go the simpler route, making your stations just create highways of Casimir vacuum through space, where c is higher and ships can accelerate further. Or you can go the hard way, using Higgs field manipulation to significantly increase the (normally very close to zero) negative mass of Casimir vacuum, and by this, create real wormholes and keeping them open.

I don't know how hard you want this sci-fi to be, but my answer would just be "it works because of science we couldn't hope to understand here in 2013, so just enjoy the story."

Same. Apart from the hard SF purists (which is a vocal minority), most people are not going to be bothered with the details, as long as the rest of your story is good enough to distract them.

I have nothing to really ask or add to this thread I started but I'll update anyone who's curious on where my idea currently is. I renamed the FTL system to "Durand-Crncevic Highways" (after the in-universe creators) and worked upon the in-universe science of mass manipulation and removed the emphasis on the Casimir Effect. To put it shortly, a form of much more stable Higgs Bosons exist known as "Ramsay-Higgs Bosons", which are extracted from stellar mass by star lifting devices known as Mass Generators, that can be used to create a form of matter-less mass (i.e. atomic structures with no actual matter) known as "Illusionary Mass" that is used to create the FTL tubes due to the fact that all particles that pass through Illusionary Mass shapes are forced to go faster than the speed of light and temporarily exist in what is known as the "Tacyhonic State".

In other words: Space Magic! Is should note I put a lot of world building into my stories.

edited 20th Jul '14 7:12:51 PM by Ndf27

The more important consideration is what impact your hypothetical technology has on the plot.

None, or at least none in the first story. It's just background info, but then, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to all kinds of story info.

No offense, but in that case you have probably already over-thought it.

Yes I most certainly have, but then world building is a hobby of mine. When I say background info I do mean stuff that would only be included in an encyclopedia of miscellaneous technology or a "Mass Effect-esque" codex of some sort.