Microscopic Wormholes Possible In Theory (phys.org) 52
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Wormholes play a key role in many science fiction films -- often as a shortcut between two distant points in space. In physics, however, these tunnels in spacetime have remained purely hypothetical. An international team led by Dr. Jose Luis Blazquez-Salcedo of the University of Oldenburg has now presented a new theoretical model in the science journal Physical Review Letters that makes microscopic wormholes seem less far-fetched than in previous theories. [...] The researchers chose a comparatively simple "semiclassical" approach. They combined elements of relativity theory with elements of quantum theory and classic electrodynamics theory. In their model they consider certain elementary particles such as electrons and their electric charge as the matter that is to pass through the wormhole. As a mathematical description, they chose the Dirac equation, a formula that describes the probability density function of a particle according to quantum theory and relativity as a so-called Dirac field.
As the physicists report in their study, it is the inclusion of the Dirac field into their model that permits the existence of a wormhole traversable by matter, provided that the ratio between the electric charge and the mass of the wormhole exceeds a certain limit. In addition to matter, signals -- for example electromagnetic waves -- could also traverse the tiny tunnels in spacetime. The microscopic wormholes postulated by the team would probably not be suitable for interstellar travel. Moreover, the model would have to be further refined to find out whether such unusual structures could actually exist. "We think that wormholes can also exist in a complete model," says Blazquez-Salcedo.
As the physicists report in their study, it is the inclusion of the Dirac field into their model that permits the existence of a wormhole traversable by matter, provided that the ratio between the electric charge and the mass of the wormhole exceeds a certain limit. In addition to matter, signals -- for example electromagnetic waves -- could also traverse the tiny tunnels in spacetime. The microscopic wormholes postulated by the team would probably not be suitable for interstellar travel. Moreover, the model would have to be further refined to find out whether such unusual structures could actually exist. "We think that wormholes can also exist in a complete model," says Blazquez-Salcedo.
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That's how a lot science starts off. Chemistry was started off by alchemy trying to answer the question, "Is it possible to turn wheat into gold?" That also eventually led us to nuclear physics.
As for the paper, I micro-wormhole could actually be quite useful. If you can create a small worm hole, you can create a series of very small worm holes in series that eventually make long distances very short. Ex: if you shrink a foot down to the width of a proton, and keep doing that, you'll end up with a pathway
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If you **do** create a worm-hole and travel through it, where is the next worm-hole coming from?
Magical unicorn farts won't do. You need a lot of bulky, expensive, massively energy consuming equipment (infrastructure).
Where dat?
Another issue. How in hell do you govern where the 'exit' is?
PS: It was lead, not wheat.
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If you **do** create a worm-hole and travel through it, where is the next worm-hole coming from?
You create it as well, in series, until you have a full path. What you're asking is equivalent of saying, "If you go on that section of road you've paved, where's the next section come from?
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Travel might not be helped much by micro wormholes, but communication might get a real boost. Not necessarily something you could construct but something you can take advantage of if you know to look for it and how to take advantage if you find it.
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I can think of more immediately useful applications: If you can send electromagnetic radiation through, you can use it for communications. Potentially even FTL communications. If you want to fund the research, ask the stock-traders.
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Don't forget, the Dirac equation is a theory that predicted antimatter should exist, decades before creating antimatter in practice. It was theoretical from them right up until we could create it in practice.
Today we actively create and use antimatter in PET scanners that are practical enough for every hospital to have one.
Many people who had a cancerous tumor images, detected, and removed are still alive today that otherwise would not be.
Quantum mechanics is a theory that predicted electron tunneling, dec
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Like most of these mathematical "theories", they cannot be implemented. In other words, they aren't worth shit.
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I guess you mean the Tipler cylinder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Come back when you get yours published in a physics journal.
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Re: Many, many things are "possible in theory" (Score:2)
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And that's why Slashdot doesn't write any stories about them.
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Paper (Score:2)
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This paper was submitted to Arxiv on 14 Oct 2020: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.073... [arxiv.org]
They didn't mention time travel in the summary.
Just one question, if you please. (Score:1)
"Huh?"
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Only eight people on slashdot understand this paper.
The Light of Other Days (Score:4, Interesting)
This reminds me of the Stephen Baxter novel The Light of Other Days.
In the novel a way is discovered to create microscopic wormholes between two points at will. Initially only data can be sent through, but later they can be seen through. Essentially it is possible to point an invisible, undetectable camera at any point on the Earth.
At first only governments have access to the technology, but it quickly becomes a commodity and society struggles to cope with the loss of privacy. Without any privacy at all people's behaviours change rapidly, if they can cope at all.
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I immediately thought of FTL communication, which would be a boon to intergalactic colony ships, but now I'm thinking people will just use it for FTL cat nanny cams.
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Our current understanding of the universe is that the speed limit for information propagation is the speed of light. It's a big part of causality. If this were possible and it breaks that law it would be very cool.
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In the novel (spoiler alert) there is some technobabble about compensating for time and distance, at which point someone realizes that if they can compensate for time they can see into the past.
I wish there had been more exploration of that idea, and of historic events. It covered a bit of stuff, like Jesus being the illegitimate child of some Roman, but there are so may more interesting historical mysteries and myths.
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Gotta say that it reminds an awful lot of Asimov's old short story "The Dead Past"
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The novel did mention that no-one was able to observe the Crucifixion because there were so many wormholes from all the future attempted observers in that region, it was impossible to get a clear signal.
I always interpreted this as the author's way of hinting 'I'm not touching that one with a bargepole.'
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Technically, a wormhole wouldn't increase the speed of information propagation. It would reduce the distance.
The effect to causality is the same. If you can get a signal outside the light cone, it doesn't matter how you accomplish it, you can use it to send a signal to the past.
People at different frames of reference don't agree on what's simultaneous, and for any event currently in the future, but outside your light cone, you can change your frame of reference so that it's in your past (but still outside your light cone, so you can't send a message to it). That is, unless you can communicate outside your light co
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This reminds me of the Stephen Baxter novel The Light of Other Days.
Isaac Asimov did the concept first in a short story called "The Dead Past". Did not explicitly mention wormholes. Same concept though. There was a building-sized time viewing device that lets you see the past and a historian wants access, but his research proposals are always denied. He goes to a science writer who hooks him up with a physicist who uses new developments in physics to help him build one in his basement that can sit on a table. A government agent shows up to stop them and it comes out that th
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Is this the story where one of the scientists figures out how to move the wormhole through time thus making it possible to prove or disprove written accounts of history?
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Yeah. Some of it is not very surprising, e.g. the Moses wasn't an individual but rather a number of stories collected together, and of course he didn't actually part the sea. Some of it was a bit more interesting from memory, but it's been a long time since I read it.
Wait! (Score:2)
You mean Stargate wasn't real?
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tunneling (Score:2)
The Ansible exists (Score:2)
Who would have thought that the Ansible [wikipedia.org] could really exist
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[rant] Use of word "theory" (Score:2)
In popular usage it means essentially the opposite -- a speculation or hypothesis. And
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Ok... but this is clearly a mix of the two meanings. It's a hypothesis, but it's backed up by mathematical underpinnings that match current physical theory. I'd give it perhaps a 50 to 60 percent chance of being correct, as an outside observer who hasn't looked into it. Perhaps a bit less, and with large error bars. (I.e., it wouldn't surprise me if someone who has looked into it give it either a 5% chance or a 95% chance.)
That said, the authors clearly admit that they haven't completed development of t
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Ok... but this is clearly a mix of the two meanings.
Right, and that's exactly my problem with it. It freely mixes the two meanings. People who don't understand the scientific use of the term then get impression that "just a theory" means something with little support behind it, when in science it's the exact opposite. Then as I mentioned before, they get the false idea that something like the Theory of evolution has little evidence backing it up.
Because of how polluted the definition of theory has become, as much as possible I've banished it from my vocabu
Exciting possibilities (Score:1)
We may even be able to see faraway worlds up close by altering the placement of the wormhole. This could make it relatively easy to search for life in the Galaxy.
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Unless you sent visible light through the same wormhole. Then it would be travelling the same speed.
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Our understanding of the physics involved and the engineering required to implement this might be decades or even hundreds of years off. But what we can do now is to understand what such intelligently manipulated wormholes might look like. And how to capture or approach one.
We haven't solved the 'shoot a wormhole across the galaxy' problem yet. But there may be more advanced civilizations who have. So all we have to do to establish communications is to find one and start flashing a light into it.
Re: Exciting possibilities (Score:2)
You can drum up a paper (Score:2)
along with the hundereds of other papers on the topic of wormholes. Don't wake me up until the experiment pans out.
Arthur Clarke hits it again (Score:2)
He and his co-author, Stephen Baxter, wrote a book titled The Light of Other Days in which someone was able to use microscopic wormholes to transmit data. A first it was sound, then pictures, and finally real time (no time delay) two-way communications. A bit later, using the Casimir Effect, this turned into the ability to watch anyone at any time anywhere in the world. Finally, this enabled viewing what happened in the past as if you were there at the time and even going out into the universe to observe
Dirac Equation (Score:2)
Of course they were going to use the Dirac equation. While Schroedinger's equation is useful for 99% of what physics does, this is also a case where relativity needs to be accounted for. Dirac does that.
Points are always moving (Score:2)
What most fail to consider with this or time travel in general, is that we are constantly moving in space along with everything else. If you traveled back/forward in time 20 years to the same spot you are now, you wouldn't be on Earth. You would be floating in empty space.
Wormholes would also need to account for the fact that both sides are constantly moving and make constant adjustments.
This issue may be overcome if you can go through a wormhole in a spaceship and then "fly" to where you want to be. If you
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (Score:2)