I've read a bit on Harold White's recent work. (A paper on Nasa's site) I haven't been able to find any comments by people claiming to know anything about the physics involved. Is this really serious? From a blog post (first link in this question):
"But interesting things have developed since the original Alcubierre paper. Running quickly through what White told the Houston audience, Chris van Den Broeck was able to reduce the energy costs of a warp drive significantly and other theorists have continued to drop the numbers. White’s team has been examining ways to continue that progression, but what is eye-catching is that he is working on a laboratory experiment to “perturb spacetime by one part in ten million” using an instrument called the White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer to create the minute spacetime disruption. "
Answer
Irrepspective of the amount of negative mass matter required, it's still a fact that these schemes require negative mass matter to work, and negative mass matter is not known to exist. And there are still problems with faster than light travel that you would have to resolve--in particular, that a solution like this would enable you to construct a time machine, and then you'd have to have a way of resolving all of the time travel paradoxes we know and love.
Full disclosure: I am also a former student of Richard Matzner, FWIW. I have never discussed this matter with him.
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