Wormholes were until recently only theoretical entities able to connect two distant places. They have led some scientists to hope wormholes could allow interstellar or even intergalactic travel. And now a prominent physicist has revealed that physics is even stranger than science fiction – wormholes exist, but are actually poor candidates for intergalactic shortcuts.
Professor Daniel Jafferis, a physicist from Harvard University said: “It takes longer to get through these wormholes than to go directly, so they are not very useful for space travel.”
The real import of this work is the connections between gravity and quantum mechanic
Professor Daniel Jafferis
Wormholes are defined as a “tube made of spacetime” connecting two different regions.
In theory a spacecraft could enter one side of the wormhole and exit in another location, or even even dimension.
Black holes in conversely are thought to be a dead-end, most likely destroying everything it consumes.
Professor Jafferis presented his potentially ground-breaking new theory on wormholes late last week.
The physicist used quantum field theory tools to show that wormholes could exist and that wormhole travel is possible.
However, rather serving as a shortcut, counter-intuitively they would in fact be a longer path between two points.
However, while wormholes may not help us speed around the universe, Jafferis’ theory could still have practical applications.
Professor Jafferis said: “The real import of this work is in relation to the black hole information problem and the connections between gravity and quantum mechanics.
“I think it will teach us deep things about the gauge/gravity correspondence, quantum gravity, and even perhaps a new way to formulate quantum mechanics.”
The research published last week has overturned decades of scientific consensus.
Some scientists have speculated what the experience of going for a ride down a wormhole.
This cold involve going on a one-way trip into an event horizon of a black hole.
This may involve then be stretched endlessly and pummelled to death by gravity.
However, some still believe that we can make wormholes work for us, as sort of a next level tube system going all over the universe.
To make it work, travellers would need to enter just outside the event horizon so you could get through the wormhole without first getting destroyed by gravity.
Travellers would also require a tunnel strong and stable enough to handle both the gravitational pressures, and the force of people flying through it at extreme speeds.
One candidate for allowing this to happen wold be to create a tunnel made of negative-mass material.
Although negative-mass materials so only exist in theory, physicists have recently created a fluid with negative-mass.
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