An international team of physicists has presented the first theoretical model in which microscopic wormholes do not need matter with negative energy density to maintain stability.
With the help of traversable wormholes, you can “teleport” from one part of the universe to another. Now physicists have shown that such microscopic objects can actually exist without the need for matter with negative energy density.
Wormholes, like black holes, are possible based on the equations of general relativity by Albert Einstein, published in 1916. An important postulate of Einstein’s theory is that the Universe has four dimensions – three spatial and one temporal. Together they form what is known as spacetime.
It can be stretched and bent by massive objects such as stars. But space can be curved even without a massive object. The hypothesis of the existence of wormholes is based on this idea. These objects are two points in space that are connected by a kind of tunnel. Until now, no one has succeeded in observing a wormhole, or, as it is also called, a wormhole, but in theory such objects can literally allow one to teleport from one part of the Universe to another.
There are two classes of wormholes – passable and impassable. The former are too unstable and collapse faster than even light can pass through them. In theory, any object can pass through the latter, but to maintain their stability in earlier theories, matter with a negative energy density was needed.
In the new work, the authors combined elements of the theory of relativity with elements of quantum theory and classical electrodynamics. Scientists used elementary particles as objects that were supposed to pass through a hypothetical wormhole. As a mathematical description of physics, they chose the Dirac equation, which allows calculating the probability density function of a particle in accordance with quantum theory and the theory of relativity.
As a result, scientists have shown that the new model allows the existence of a traversable wormhole, provided that the ratio between the electric charge and the mass of the wormhole is above a certain value. In addition, scientists have shown that electromagnetic waves can pass through such wormholes. Microscopic wormholes are unlikely to be suitable for interstellar travel. In addition, the model needs to be further refined in order to find out if such unusual structures can actually exist.
