The existence of wormholes in the Universe is theoretically possible. In theory, in the distant future, humanity will be able to use them to travel to remote places in space. But they have one drawback – it’s a one-way ticket, because there will be no way back. After using the wormhole in one direction, it will close. But new theoretical models prove that these space tunnels do not close immediately and this time can be used to send messages home. This is reported by researchers in Physical Review D.
Physicists have long known that one of the most frequently studied types of wormholes will be unstable and will begin to collapse if any matter gets into it. However, it was previously unclear how quickly this could happen. Now a new computer program shows how one type of wormhole will react when something travels through it.
“We simulated sending an imaginary probe that went through a wormhole to the other side of the Universe. Of course, it is useless to hope that it will return, because after that the space tunnel will begin to collapse. But is it possible to send any signal back through the wormhole before the collapse? And we find that it’s really possible,” commented Ben Kane, a physicist at the College of the Holy Cross, University of Cambridge.
Ghost Matter
Previous studies of wormholes have proven that space passages can remain open for repeated travel, even in the opposite direction for some types of waves, but only if they are supported by a form of matter that is so exotic that it is called “ghost matter”. Although this type of matter coincides with Einstein’s general theory of relativity, unfortunately, ghost matter certainly does not exist in reality.
However, Kane modeled ghostly matter traveling through the wormhole and found that this caused the hole to expand, not collapse. The simulation confirmed that this would trigger a collapse that would close the opening and leave something like a black hole. But this will happen quite slowly so that the probe has time to transmit signals back to Earth just before the wormhole closes completely. For example, it is quite possible to have time to transmit a video message from the other side of the wormhole.
Earlier we reported on how the smallest black hole was discovered.
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