Andrew L. Bender
Andrew L. Bender | |
|---|---|
| Known for | SlipString Drive and the "Membrane Theory of Gravity" |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics (speculative) |
Andrew L. Bender is an author known for the self-published book SlipString Drive: String Theory, Gravity, and "Faster Than Light" Travel, in which he proposes a speculative gravity-wave propulsion concept and a "Membrane Theory of Gravity." He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Work
In SlipString Drive (iUniverse, 2006) Bender presents, for a general and amateur-physics audience, an introduction to string theory and M-theory followed by his own proposal for faster-than-light travel. He argues that gravity waves could be used to "gravitationally isolate" a volume of spacetime from the rest of the universe—an effect he likens to travel through a wormhole—and he sketches an engine design intended to generate such waves.
Alongside this, Bender offers what he calls a "Membrane Theory of Gravity," described as a modification of M-theory in which gravity arises from vibrations curving the brane on which our universe resides, and which he claims unifies the fundamental forces and accounts for dark matter and dark energy. These ideas are self-published and lie outside mainstream theoretical physics.