Are Wormholes Really Impossible Without Exotic Matter?

[cjackson]

I've read works by Kip Thorne, Brian Greene, Sean Carroll, Leonard Susskind and I get the impression that wormholes are highly problematic and are based on relativistic equations, but not reality. I want to know why wormholes are impossible.

 

[Matterwave]

I don't think anyone says wormholes are impossible. They are allowed by the equations of general relativity. But until one observes one, they are only a theoretical possibility.

Problems with wormholes might include the exotic matter needed to create one, and their instability. I have not studied wormholes very thoroughly so I cannot make anymore concrete observations on this matter.

 

[kurros]

Any wormhole that would let us send a signal from A to B faster than it would take light to get there via the "normal" route would also allow us to create gnarly causality-violating time-travel style paradoxes. People generally think that the universe will somehow forbid such things from happening, i.e. Hawking's "chronology protection conjecture".

 

[DrClaude]

NASA has a short FAQ on the subject. Check out in particular question 2.

 

[NebulaWAR]

I was always under the impression that Wormholes are very possible and that the only problem is the amount of energy needed to artificially create one is the near impossible part? Also, I know it's microscopic black holes that are created in the colliders but if that's possible then maybe the next thing we may see is tiny wormholes being created? Just wishful thinking :-) Sent from my iPhone using Physics Forums

 

[kurros]

Well they exist of solutions of Einstein's equations, sure, but there is no known "dynamic" process for actually forming them. I.e. as far as I know no-one has cooked up any numerical simulation of the collapse of stars or any other wild situation which leads to a wormhole being formed, even using exotic matter etc. which is usually required to keep the wormhole stable.

But sure, the causality problems they would induce are not exactly a physics-based demonstration that they are impossible. They just demonstrate that there are some deeply-held metaphysical principles that would be somewhat shattered if wormholes can indeed exist. But people like these particular principles a lot, so they tend to favour them over the existence of wormholes.

 

[NebulaWAR]

Well they exist of solutions of Einstein's equations, sure, but there is no known "dynamic" process for actually forming them. I.e. as far as I know no-one has cooked up any numerical simulation of the collapse of stars or any other wild situation which leads to a wormhole being formed, even using exotic matter etc. which is usually required to keep the wormhole stable.

But sure, the causality problems they would induce are not exactly a physics-based demonstration that they are impossible. They just demonstrate that there are some deeply-held metaphysical principles that would be somewhat shattered if wormholes can indeed exist. But people like these particular principles a lot, so they tend to favour them over the existence of wormholes.

I see what your saying and I guess I can except that. I just feel more in favor of almost instantaneous travel across the universe. Lol.

Now I may be way off here but is there not recent theory's suggesting that Black holes may allow matter (or actually "waves") to "re-particlize" once passed through the event horizon? It's something suggested in the Holographic universe. The only reason I bring this up is that if this theory is true, (and I say "if" loosely), would this not be a form of the process taking place in a wormhole that the theory of wormholes suggest? Meaning maybe black holes are accomplishing what we once thought theoretical wormholes would do.

And clearly from my lack of physics vocabulary you may realize that I'm no scientist or student. I am just learning and I find physics to be the most fascinating thing. I found this forum and I just had to get involved. So please be patient with me as I am not as informed as all of you on here. And thank you for taking the time to respond to me thoughts and questions. I'm sure you all will teach me allot. :-)
Sent from my iPhone using Physics Forums

 

[kurros]

Haha no problem. Unfortunately I don't know what you refer to regarding black holes. There was some furore last year or the year before about so-called "firewalls", i.e. there was some argument that due to some quantum information magic then in fact rather than nothing happening as one passes the event horizon, as everyone previously believed, actually one would encounter an inferno of high energy particles and be incinerated.

I don't know if that argument has been resolved yet, but I can imagine it might also cause problems for wormholes, i.e. maybe one would be incinerated trying to pass through them. I don't recall anyone claiming that specifically though so I might be extending the idea too far :).

 

[NeutrinoKing]

Wormholes can exist!

Wormholes can exist but in order to open up one correctly you would need very very strong supermagnets and you would have a very short time to go through before it closes on you. It's still a theory and it is mathimatically possible according to special relativity. If a black hole were to be dense and big enough (probably a non-rotating one though) it could break the fabric of space-time but appear somewhere else on the other end as a white hole. White holes are also just a theory and I don't think they have been observed (correct me if I'm wrong) but it would look like a miniture Big Bang in a way. :)

 

[Chronos]

According to most scientists, you need exotic [as in imaginary] matter to create a stable wormhole. We have observed no evidence of any such form of matter.