Wormholes

PHYS43 Modern Physics, SRJCSection 5756Instructor: Dr. Younes AtaiiyanModern Physics Project, Spring 2011May 10, 2011

Melissa MeikleMelody Golobic

Space-time• Time is considered the 4th dimension of our Universe

(Our Universe has 3 dimensions of space and 1 of time)

• Einstein said you can think of these 4 dimensions as fabric (ie fabric of space-time)

What are Wormholes?

• Hypothetical tunnel connecting two different regions in space-time

• Traveling through a wormhole takes less time than traveling between the same starting and ending regions in normal space

• In theory, the ends of wormhole could be intra-universe or inter-universe

• Weight added to a piece of fabric will cause sag towards the center– Super massive black holes cause a tear in space-

time and this tear is the wormhole– These two regions would meet and form a

wormhole connection

Shape

• Defined as short cut through space and time

• Has to fold the 2D concept of space and time to create a 3D situation

• Becomes the bridge from one dimension to the other

• Made up of: 2 mouths and a throat

Properties

• Highly unstable• Most likely would

collapse instantly if the smallest amount of matter (ie single photon) attempted to pass through

Wormholes:a connection

• According to laws of Newton every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Since a black holes is an object that takes in energy that goes into where, there must be an object that ejects energy out of no where.

• Wormholes connect whiteholes and blackholes.

Video explanation of wormholes

History of the wormhole

• Einstein first proposed wormholes in 1935. He co-wrote a paper with Nathan Rosen in which they showed that general relativity allowed for what they called “bridges.” They theorized that there could be places where space/time is folded that allowed transfer of matter from one point to another in the universe, specifically in blackholes.

History of the wormhole

• Carl Sagan’s Novel Contact in 1985 prompted physicist Kip Thorne to develop a space transport system which led him to a never before seen solution to Einstein GTR equation describing large traversable wormholes.

Types

• Lorentzian wormholes (general relativity)– Short-cuts through space and time– Mainly studied by experts in Einstein gravity

• Euclidean wormholes (particle physics)– Live in “imaginary time”– Intrinsically virtual quantum mechanical processes– Of interest mainly to the particle physicists

(quantum field theorists)

Do Wormholes Exist?

• Theorists believed wormholes could exist for only an instant of time and anyone trying to pass through would run into a singularity– Singularity: marks a point where the curvature of space-time is infinite (it possesses zero volume and infinite density)

• No observational evidence, but on theoretical level there are valid solutions to the equations of general relativity– General Theory of Relativity: According to

Einstein, gravity is not a force but an effect of mass curving (warping) space and time (space-time)

Time Travel?• As with any mode of faster-than-light travel, wormholes

offer the possibility of time travel• The only material used to stabilize wormholes from

pinching off is material having negative energy density and large negative pressure/tension that is larger in magnitude than the energy density, called “exotic matter”– “exotic matter” could prevent a wormhole from

collapsing on itself– No classical matter can do this, but it is possible that

quantum fluctuations in various fields might be able to

Metrics

• Theories of wormhole metrics describe the space-time geometry of a wormhole and serve as theoretical models for time travel

• Traversable wormhole metric:

• One type of non-traversable wormhole metric is the Schwarzschild solution:

References• http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/W/wormhole.html• http://library.thinkquest.org/27930/wormhole.htm• http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=follow-up-what-exactly-is• http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/strange/html/wormhole.html• http://www.universetoday.com/52443/wormhole/• http://www.se51.net/2011/02/01/goddamn-stargates-how-do-they-work/• http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/schww.html• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormholes• http://www.deism.com/einstein.htm• http://physics.about.com/od/relativisticmechanics/a/relativity_4.htm• http://ajp.aapt.org/resource/1/ajpias/v56/i5/p395_s1?isAuthorized=no• http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=141447• http://thescincedelusion.blogspot.com/2010/05/on-relativity-of-light.html• http://www.light-and-illusion.com/space-art-science-fiction-art/?

cat=3&paged=3