According to our current understanding of physics, it is not possible for an object with mass to travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, as described by Einstein's theory of relativity. As an object with mass approaches the speed of light, its relativistic mass increases, requiring an infinite amount of energy to accelerate it further. This limitation is known as the cosmic speed limit.
However, if we consider the hypothetical scenario of an object traveling faster than light (often referred to as tachyons), several unusual properties and effects have been theorized:
Imaginary Mass: Objects that move faster than light are speculated to possess imaginary mass. Imaginary mass implies that the mass of the object is expressed as a complex number, involving the imaginary unit (√-1) multiplied by a real number. This property is purely theoretical and does not correspond to any known physical phenomena.
Causality Violation: If an object could travel faster than light, it could potentially violate the principle of causality, which states that an effect must always follow its cause. This violation could lead to situations where events occur before their causes, resulting in paradoxes and inconsistencies.
Time Travel: The ability to travel faster than light could potentially enable time travel, at least according to some speculative theories. It has been proposed that objects exceeding the speed of light might experience time dilation effects, allowing them to travel backward in time or experience time in a non-linear fashion.
Space-Time Distortion: The presence of an object moving faster than light could disrupt the fabric of space-time. In Einstein's theory of relativity, massive objects cause a curvature in space-time, and similarly, an object exceeding the speed of light might create extreme distortions or discontinuities in the space-time continuum.
It's important to note that these properties and effects are purely hypothetical and speculative since there is currently no experimental evidence or theoretical framework supporting the existence of objects that can travel faster than light. Our understanding of the universe, as described by the theory of relativity, suggests that the speed of light is an ultimate cosmic speed limit beyond which traditional notions of causality and space-time behavior break down.