Science 2 min read

Physicist Claim Wormhole Travel is Possible, But it's not a Shortcut

pixelparticle / Shutterstock.com

pixelparticle / Shutterstock.com

A new theory about wormholes has been proposed during this year’s American Physical Society April Meeting in Colorado. According to Harvard physicist Daniel Jafferis, wormhole travel is possible.

However, unlike the typical sci-fi movie portrayal that wormholes serve as galactic shortcuts in space, traversing through one in real life could be quite long. In a statement, Jafferis was quoted as saying:

“It takes longer to get through these wormholes than to go directly, so they are not very useful for space travel.”

While Jafferis is clearly not a fan of pan-galactic travel, he claims that being able to build a wormhole that will allow light to pass through could potentially help in the understanding of the theory of quantum gravity.

“The real import of this work is in its relation to the black hole information problem and the connections between gravity and quantum mechanics.”

Wormhole Travel

According to Jafferis, his new theory of wormhole travel was inspired by the idea of two black holes entangled on a quantum level as per the ER=EPR correspondence of Juan Maldacena from the Institute for Advanced Study and Lenny Susskind from Stanford. In this entangled state, the direct connection between the two black holes will be significantly shorter than the wormhole connection.

Simply put, wormhole travel will not be a shortcut.

“From the outside perspective, travel through the wormhole is equivalent to quantum teleportation using entangled black holes.

It gives a causal probe of regions that would otherwise have been behind a horizon, a window to the experience of an observer inside a spacetime, that is accessible from the outside.”

To date, one of the major roadblocks in the formulation of traversable wormholes is the need for negative energy which is not consistent with quantum gravity. However, by calculating quantum effects, Jafferis was reportedly able to overcome the problem.

“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.”

Read More: How Two New Propulsion Systems Could Revolutionize Space Travel

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Chelle is the Product Management Lead at INK. She's an experienced SEO professional as well as UX researcher and designer. She enjoys traveling and spending time anywhere near the sea with her family and friends.

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    Anthony Crosier April 22 at 11:03 am GMT

    Very interesting though a science fiction.

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