Phase-Locked Traveling Wave Pocket Transport Using a Three-Ring Pulsed Actuator System

This paper outlines a conceptual propulsion framework in which a vehicle may travel while remaining phase-locked inside a moving wave pocket or bubble-like low-gradient region. Instead of accelerating the vehicle directly using reaction thrust, the surrounding field or medium is dynamically shaped so that the vehicle remains confined inside a co-moving pocket while the wave packet itself translates. The hull is envisioned as an actively tunable multilayer interface that launches and synchronizes with a driven traveling disturbance. When correctly phase-locked, the vehicle may remain centered inside a self-generated low-gradient pocket. Control and steering correspond to controlled phase changes between the hull actuation and the traveling disturbance. This framework reframes propulsion as a synchronization and stability-control question rather than a reaction-mass problem. The work is speculative in nature and does not claim demonstrated feasibility. A tabletop analogue experiment is suggested to explore the stability and controllability of co-moving capture pockets in simpler systems. Version note: This is Version 4 of the paper Phase-Locked Traveling Wave Pocket Transport. It includes clarified wording, updated structure, and references to the author’s related Zenodo works. No feasibility claim is made, and the concept is presented for discussion and independent theoretical review only.