Wormholes

PHYS43 Modern Physics, SRJC

Section 5756
Instructor: Dr. Younes Ataiiyan
Modern Physics Project, Spring
2011
May 10, 2011

Melissa Meikle
Melody
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 spacetime)

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 intrauniverse 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 cowrote 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 Sagans 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