A ring wormhole could function as a time machine under certain circumstances
Wormholes represent fantastic shortcuts that could be used to shorten one’s journey through vast space or even time. Of course, it doesn’t just happen that way. First, it would be necessary to meet conditions that, from the point of view of today’s physics, range somewhere between “impossible” and “nonsensical.” Ring wormholes are one possible scenario.
Annular wormhole. Credit: Gibbons & Volkov (2016), Physics Letters B.
The idea of traveling through an exotically warped space-time that would allow quantum effects, as well as particles, to pass unscathed continues to fascinate. It’s exactly the kind of science that has one foot in the mirages of science fiction but the other firmly planted in the equations of physics. Perfect for summer.
Valery Frolov.
Kredit: University of Alberta.
Valeri Frolov and Andrei Zelnikov from the Canadian University of Alberta, together with Pavel Krtouš from Charles University, propose using an annular wormhole for this purpose (Ring wormhole). This concept was first used in 2016 by physicists Gary Gibbons from the UK’s University of Cambridge and Mikhail Volkov from France’s University of Tours.
Logo. Kredit: University of Alberta.
Gibbons and Volkov’s annular wormhole connects regions of space (or other universes) with flat geometry. Thanks to the interactions of electric and magnetic fields, it can create exotic kinks in otherwise flat geometry. Such a wormhole will literally create a hole in space-time. Gibbons and Volkov believe that such a wormhole could form if negative energy builds up in the toroidal space, for example as a result of quantum fluctuations.
Frolov, Zelnikov and Krtouš built a thought ring wormhole and tried to run it through various scenarios. They obtained various solutions, among which a closed time-like curve (CTC, Closed timelike curve), which is related to closed space-time. The theory says that if closed time-like curves exist, then their existence is related to the theoretical possibility of traveling backwards in time. We are already on very thin ice here, and physicists are well aware of a number of obstacles that could spoil such travel. But it’s summer and we can at least imagine it.
Video: Wormholes Explained – Distortion of Space-Time
Literature
Physics Letters B 760: 324–328.
2023-07-18 22:07:39
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