Ron, from a high level, I do not believe these patents have scientific merit at this moment, or that the US government has developed the requisite scientific basis for the claims. It would appear to me these are somewhat catch-all patent applications for future use and research in those areas, based on some evolving theories, so mark that Option 4, and this why I said that researcher is thinking in different dimensions.
In terms of alien technologies and having reverse-engineered them, I also find that very hard to believe. If there were to be such technology, how would we have obtained it? If it were to have come as a result of an alien craft accident, it may be tough to reverse-engineer a dead highly-advanced "corpse."
Having said that, there is no way any layman would be able to comfortably pick any of your options, or similar ones. I do believe there is a lot more to be discovered in terms of particle physics and their properties, which will eventually lead to tearing down that speed-of-light limit.