Melissa Meikle
Melody Golobic
Wormholes
PHYS43 Modern Physics, SRJC
Section 5756
Instructor: Dr. Younes Ataiiyan
Modern Physics Project, Spring 2011
May 10, 2011
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 spacetime
• 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 interuniverse
• Weight added to a piece of fabric will cause sag
towards the center
– Super massive black holes cause a tear in spacetime 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 (spacetime)
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-whatexactly-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-fictionart/?cat=3&paged=3