Warp drives through the fluid–geometry dictionary: Stokes minima, electrostatic slices, quantum-inequality bounds, and lighter, accelerating physical warp shells

In the Natário class of warp-drive metrics (flat spatial slices, unit lapse, shift −X), the Einstein equations on each slice (the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints) are read as the viscous dissipation and the viscous force of the flow X, extending the fluid–geometry dictionary of the author's previous work (doi:10.5281/zenodo.22729098). Results: the minimum energy of zero-expansion drives is a Stokes drag (Helmholtz's minimum-dissipation theorem), giving convoy savings, optimal shapes and obstacle costs; Alcubierre-type drives decompose into two-dimensional electrostatic problems with opposite traffic rules; a quantum-inequality comparison of both families; a positive-energy warp shell 2.7 times lighter than the published one at equal light-test delay, and a first-order floor for pressureless spherical shells (0.28 Jupiter masses at equal delay, 1.26 times lighter at equal interior speed); a tide-free flat shell; spin-up of the gravitomagnetic coil; an exact accelerating ship with an inertial cabin (Kinnersley photon-rocket exterior); and a pointwise particle model of its shell with no material strength. All energy conditions are evaluated as exact minima over observers with the full Einstein tensor. The zip file contains all scripts that produce the numbers of the paper, the LaTeX source and the figures. AI tools were used as declared in the paper.