WORMHOLES AND TIME TRAVEL

SPACE, THE FINAL FRONTIER

Roberto Bartali

Introduction
The Universe is a very big place (Figure 1),
distance between stars, are enormous, and measured
in billions of light years. The speed of light, as far as
we know, due to the Einstein Theory of Relativity, is
constant and not possible to be surpassed [1][32].
With this scenario, can we ever be able to travel to
the nearest stars in a reasonable time? A reasonable
time would be a less than a life time.
Science Fiction movies tell us that it is
possible and scientist tell us that, until they do not
demonstrate the opposite, it is not impossible.
Einstein state that space and time are not two
independent things, but they are the constituents of
our four dimensional Universe and time is relative to
Figure 1 the frame where the observer is [1][7].
This image, from the Hubble A possible solution of the Einstein’s equations
Space Telescope, of a very far
group of galaxies, give us the is a so called Wormhole (WH). A special type of WH
impression that the Universe can be used as a bridge or a tunnel between two
is infinite.
From: www.seds.org/hst/hst different parts of the Universe, or maybe to another,
parallel Universe, of course if we find the form to fix
all the problems that arise when we try to pass through
it.

Black Hole, White Hole and Wormhole

The Theory of Relativity state that matter with mass, bend or warp the space-time
(Figure 2) [22][29][32]. If
the mass is concentrated in
a small radius, called the
Schwarzschild radius,
gravity is so high that after
entered in it, the escape
velocity is greater than the
speed of light, we call it the
Figure 2
The mass of an object distort the space-time. Event Horizon (EH), but we
From: http://astron.berkeley.edu/~bmendez/html/time.html know that the speed of light
is the speed limit of
everything in the Universe, so we have a Black Hole (BH),[5][21] and, nothing can leave it.
The distortion of the space-time, increase as the mass tend to be infinite reduced to a single
point (an infinitesimal volume, called a singularity). What happened in the singularity?
Until now the laws of physics for the singularity are not known.

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 We can have two possible type of BH, a
static one and a rotating one. For the static one,
after passing through the EH, there is only one
possibility: going deep into the singularity. But if
we have a rotating BH, and this is probably the
only type that exist in the Universe, there is a
chance to pass through it without falling into the
singularity and being destroyed.
Theoretically we can have an object that
act exactly in the opposite way: a White Hole
(WhH). A WhH may be connected to the
singularity of the BH and it has its own EH, but
Figure 3
The configuration of a Black Hole and
nothing can go inside, everything goes out
a White Hole connected together by the (Figure 3). This configuration is purely
singularity.
From:
theoretical, because there is no observational
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/122/m evidence for that. Everything that enter into a
ar13/travel.html
BH, after passing through the singularity, may
go out from the WhH.
It is not possible to observe directly a
BH, so we can see only the effect that the BH
gravity carry on the matter near the EH (Figure
4).
If the space-time is highly folded (Figure
5) it is possible to have a passage or a bridge, as
Einstein called it, or a Wormhole (WH), this is
also the connection of a BH and a WhH. The
connection was discovered in the decade of
1930 by the same Einstein and Rosen. In this
case we have a channel or a tunnel connecting
two different part of the Universe. This folded
space-time structure is called Hyperspace. So the WH may be a tunnel connecting two
different parts of the Universe. Figure 4:
In this Hubble Space Telescope
picture we see what we think is the
accretion disk around a Black Hole
in the nucleus of the Galaxy NGC4261
From: www.seds.org/hst/hst

Figure 5
Schematic diagram of the
folded space time and
the wormhole tunnel.
From:
http://astron.berkeley.e
du/~bmendez/html/time.ht
ml

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Types of Wormholes
Basically there are two types of WH[4][15][30][21]: the Schwarzschild WH and the
Kerr WH.
The Schwarzschild WH is theoretical, because it is formed from the collapse of a
static and spherical type star. There is no such object in the Universe, but this type of WH is
the easiest to explain and the first to be recognized, solving Einstein’s equations.
The Kerr WH is one created from a rotating and irregular (not perfectly spherical)
object. Every object in the Universe are in rotation, so this type of WH may exist. If a
massive rotating star (more than 3 solar masses) collapses, the resulting BH has not a point
like singularity, but it is in form of a ring. In principle there is a possibility for a particle to
cross the ring-form singularity without its destruction.
A third type of WH is the Quantum
Foam WH [3][19](Figure 6). These are
very tiny tunnels with dimensions much
smaller than that of an electron. They can
be explained only by Quantum mechanics,
they are connecting our Universe with
many other Universes and also many parts
of our own Universe. In general the above
characteristics are true for all type of WH.
Figure 6 The true problem is that a WH is
Microscopic quantum wormholes.
From: http://axxon.com.ar/zap/167/c- unstable, it can survive, or left open, for a time
Zapping0167.htm much less than the light travel time needed to
cross it. Of course it is not an observable thing
even in a indirect form as we can do for a BH.

Travel through a Wormhole and time travel

Science fiction writers, many times, uses the properties of a WH to let people travel
in time or visit Parallel Universes. They present this as something relatively easy.
Unfortunately, many writers do not have any scientific background and left Sci-Fi readers
with the wrong idea of what is a WH or a time travel experience.
But, reality is much more complex, so let me show things from a more scientific
point of view. A WH give us the possibility to jump to the past or jump to another
Universe[3][6][20][31]. The traveler needs to solve many problems if he want to survive,
return and tell the story to someone else:
• maintain the WH open,
• the WH must have a mouth large enough to let him pass through it,
• the gravitational force inside the throat must be low,
• he needs another WH near for the returning trip,
• he must obey the Causality Principle,
• he must not interfere with the new reality,
• he must take into account the relativistic time dilation.
To maintain the WH open is not easy, any matter has mass and mass increase
gravity, so conventional mass can not do the job, because it accelerate the instability
closing the WH almost instantaneously. A possible solution is using some Exotic matter
[20] as Thorne, Morris and Yurtsever demonstrate in 1988. This exotic matter can solve the

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three first problems stated above because it must have negative energy density. This kind of
material may push the throat walls apart maintain the tunnel open. But we knows only that
may exists some quantum particles that shows such properties, they are very small and lasts
for a very short time. The quantity of the exotic matter the travel must carry with him is
very large and it must be carefully calibrated to avoid fatal consequences as to be self
destroyed or producing the collapse of the WH. For Thorne and colleagues this is only a
technological drawback, some time in the future we may produce large quantity of exotic
matter, because it is physically possible.
Another way, as always using exotic matter, is to take a quantum WH and grow it as
necessary [19][20]. This is more closely to science fiction than the reality, because we have
first to proof the existence of the quantum foam WH.
Due to the one way only type of travel through the WH, for the returning trip it must
be necessary a second WH connecting the new space-time to the old space-time. This will
be a severe restriction until we can create WH, because it seems to be impossible to have
two parallel WH with the entering mouth of one closer to exiting mouth of the other.
The causality principle stay that things must happened after, and not before
something causes them. This imply that there is a limit in space and time travel, we can not
go back in time before the creation of the WH.
Time traveler must only watch the new reality, otherwise he can produce a paradox,
he can not change the future modifying the past. Maybe there is a law that forbid producing
paradoxes or maybe traveling in time only make a copy of the traveler in another parallel
universe avoiding the possibility to make paradoxes [2][3][15].
When traveler pass through the WH, the trip is almost instantaneously, but this is
true only in his reference frame, for somebody outside the WH, the time elapsed is much
more, due to the time dilation effect[15]. So, when he return, possibly he find that a much
longer time is past, and really, he return in the future respect to the reference frame of
people and place when and where he started the travel.

Conclusion
WH are very interesting things, they are feasible solutions for the equations of
Einstein. At the time they was discovered, mathematically speaking, they was so strange
that nobody take care of them for 50 years. They are a consequences of BH and also for
Einstein that idea seemed to be excessively crazy for those times.
After the discovery of neutron stars, pulsars and strong emitters of X ray and
Gamma ray objects, the evidence of the existence of BH is very strong, so, why not think
seriously about WH?
Our Universe stayed three-dimensional for thousand of years, then, Einstein,
introduced the space-time and now physicist speak about 10 or even 11 dimensions and
they tell us about other universes. WH, then, gain importance not only theoretically, but
practically also, because they can be the connections to those other universes, and they can
be the way to travel to stars and visit other planets.
Even when science fiction continue to present and invent time machines, I think
there is no sense to travel in time, we can not change the future, so there is no reason to do
that. Maybe historians or biologist are more interested in knowing the past to understand
how people and creatures evolved or disappeared.

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 My point of view is that the WH is better as a shortcut for traveling the enormous
distances from Earth to stars [6][3], even when it imply a travel in time also. WH can not
only be used to travel in time, but also to travel to another part of the universe.
Many years will be passing until we can really understand first, how the Universe
work and then, the manner to manipulate the WH, because until now they are only a pretty
mathematical conjecture. We have, before, to know, really, how Universe works and how it
starts, until that time, there is no reason to speculate about WH construction and usage, nor
in a time machine. Thorne and colleagues, did a great job with WH, but hundred of years in
advance.

References

[1] Quintana H., Espacio, tiempo y Universo, Alfaomega, 2002

[2] Vranas P, Can I kill my younger self? Time travel and the retro suicide paradox, 2003

[3] Hawking S., Space and time warps, Public Lecture

[4] Armendariz C, Picon, On a class of stable, traversable Lorentzian wormholes in

classical general relativity, 2002

[5] Char B. F, Leon C., Diccionario astronomico, Cosmologia, 2003

[6] Davis E. W., Interstellar travel by means of wormhole induction propulsion (WHIP),
1997
[7] Bandini Buti A., La Relativita,Delfino,1971

Magazines
[8] Astronomy, June 1991, pg. 28

[9] Astronomy, February 1996, pg. 52

[10] Newton, September 2003, pg. 130

Internet
[11] http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/122/mar13/travel.html

[12] http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/schww.html

[13] http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw33.html

[14] http://www.google.com.mx/search?q=cache:wj5dQO7XhucJ:arxiv.org/pdf/gr-
qc/9606069+%22Wormholes+in+spacetime+and+their+use+for+interstellar+travel%22&hl
=es&ie=UTF-8

[15] http://astron.berkeley.edu/~bmendez/html/time.html

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[16] http://www.hawking.org.uk/pdf/warp.pdf

[17] http://www.astronomycafe.net/qanda.html

[18] http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/wormholes/default.htm

[19] http://leo.worldonline.es/calambre/univerpa.htm

[20] http://axxon.com.ar/zap/167/c-Zapping0167.htm

[21]
http://www.madrimasd.org/culturaCientifica/ateneo/temascandentes/agujeros_negros/defau
lt.asp

[22] http://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle/index.html

[23] http://geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/5803/tra.html

[24] http://www.astonomycafe.net/qadir/q1446.html

[25] http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/magazine/worm_holes.html

[26]http://www.crystalinks.com/wormholes.html

[27] http://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/users/gabor/black_holes/slide9.html

[28] http://pages.pomona.edu/˜jml02000/Worm%20Holes.html

[29] http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/faq/black_hole/bhole-4.html

[30] http://www.fis.cinvestav.mx/~xamador/Artikelvetenskapen/WORMHOLES.HTM

[31] http://www.sct.gu.edu.au/~s2140444/sci_comm/writing/dowling/final_version2.htm

[32] http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/relativity.htm