Wormholes may already have been discovered, physicists say: ScienceAlert

Virtual bridges connecting distant regions of space (and time) can more or less look like a garden of variety black holeswhich means that it is possible that these legendary monsters of physics have already been seen.

But fortunately, if the new model proposed by a small team of physicists from Sofia University in Bulgaria is accurate, it is still possible to tell them apart.

Play with Einstein The general theory of relativity Long enough, it’s possible to show how the space-time background of the universe can form not just deep gravitational pits where nothing escapes — it can form impossible mountain peaks that can’t be climbed.

Unlike their dark cousins, these glowing mounds would ward off anything approaching, belching out streams of particles and radiation that had no hope of turning back.

Putting aside the outstanding possibility Big Bang looks just like it one of thesewhite holes‘, nothing of the kind was ever observed. Nevertheless, it remains an interesting concept for exploring the edges of one of the greatest theories in physics.

In the 30sa colleague of Einstein’s named Nathan Rosen showed that there is nothing deeply curved space-time in the universe says Black hole The steep peaks of a white hole cannot connect to form a kind of bridge.

In this corner of physics, our everyday predictions about distance and time go out the window, meaning that such a theoretical link could traverse vast expanses of the universe.

Under the right conditions, it might even be possible for matter to ride down this cosmic tube and exit the other end with its information more or less intact.

So to determine what this wormhole black hole might look like to observatories such as the Event Horizon Telescope, the Sophia University team developed a simplified model of the wormhole’s “throat” as a magnetized ring of liquid, and made various assumptions about how matter came into being. Circle it before you swallow it.

Particles caught in this furious storm will produce powerful electromagnetic fields that will roll and snap in predictable patterns, polarizing any light that is emitted from the hot matter with a distinct signature. It was the tracing of polarized radio waves that gave us the first amazing images of M87* in 2019 and arch a* earlier this year.

It turns out that the wormhole’s smoking hot lips are hard to distinguish from the polarized light emitted by the disk of chaos surrounding the black hole.

By that logic, M87* could be a wormhole. In fact, wormholes could be lurking at the end of black holes everywhere, and we wouldn’t have an easy way to find out.

This does not mean that there is no way of knowing at all.

If we were to get lucky and put together an image of a candidate wormhole as seen obliquely through a decent gravitational lens, the exact characteristics that distinguish wormholes from black holes might become apparent.

This would require a mass adequately placed between us and the wormhole to distort its light enough to magnify the small differences, of course, but it would at least give us a means of detecting dark spots of void that have a back exit.

There is another avenue that also requires a good dose of wealth. If we detect a wormhole at a perfect angle, the light traveling through its dividing entrance towards us will enhance its signature even further, giving us a clearer indication of a portal through the stars and beyond.

Further modeling could reveal other properties of light waves that help sort wormholes from the night sky without the need for a lens or perfect angles, a possibility that researchers are now turning their attention to.

Put more restrictions In the physics of wormholes can not only reveal new ways of exploration general relativityBut physics describes the behavior of waves and particles.

Beyond that, Lessons learned from predictions Such ones could reveal where general relativity breaks down, opening up some of its own holes to make bold new discoveries that could give us an entirely new way of seeing the universe.

This research has been published in physical review d.