Research Shows Wormholes Have Not Generated a Spacetime Crack.
“Wormholes” remain a concept rooted in science fiction, as none have been discovered at any location in space. However, using theoretical applications based on known data, researchers have successfully created a wormhole in a simulated environment.
Scientists recently announced that they have modeled two small black holes within a quantum computer environment and transmitted a message between them via a path that can be termed a “spacetime tunnel.”
Based on the successfully transmitted quantum information, they believe a wormhole formed that connects the two black holes; however, the experiment did not reveal any spacetime cracks. The report was published in Nature on December 1.
A wormhole – often described as a crack in spacetime – is viewed as a gateway linking two distant regions of space. Scientists named them Einstein-Rosen bridges, after the two physicists who originally described them, Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen. Using the Sycamore quantum processor developed by Google, the scientists obtained initial confirmations.
Illustration of a simulated wormhole – (Photo: Caltech).
Physicist Joseph Lykken, also a co-author of the study, stated that if the object created in the simulated environment exhibits characteristics of a wormhole, the research team would refer to it as such. Physicist Mario Spiropulu, another co-author of the scientific report, described the recent success as a “baby wormhole” and expressed hopes of gradually creating “mature wormholes” in the future.
Experts not involved in the experiment remind us that science has yet to create a wormhole existing in actual space, but this could happen in the future.
Daniel Harlow, a physicist from MIT, told The New York Times that the experiment is based on an extremely simple model of the universe, so much so that the quantum computer environment conducting the experiment can be compared to a piece of paper with a pencil illustration.
“I can assert that [this success] tells us nothing about the quantum gravity we do not yet understand,” Harlow remarked. “On the other hand, I think this is a significant theoretical achievement because if we could not accomplish this (science has not been able to create a simulated wormhole until now), then simulating other theories of quantum gravity would certainly still be impossible.”
The authors of the research also affirm that science has not yet enabled any form of life to travel through such a space portal.
Google’s Sycamore quantum processor – (Photo: Google).
“Practically speaking, I must tell you that we are still very, very far from that capability. People often ask me if dogs can be sent into a wormhole, and the answer remains no,” physicist Spiropulu said. “That is a very long leap.”
Joseph Lykken added, “There is a significant difference between theoretical feasibility and practical feasibility. So do not expect that we can send dogs traveling through a wormhole. But ultimately, we must start from somewhere.”
According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, which describes gravity – one of the fundamental forces of the universe, wormholes could indeed exist. The term “wormhole” was first used by physicist John Wheeler in the 1950s, and it remains a research target in physics as well as a subject of speculation in science fiction.
“These ideas have existed for a long time, and they carry great power,” physicist Lykken said. “But ultimately, this is still experimental science; we have spent many challenging years figuring out how to study these ideas in a laboratory environment. It is no longer simply ‘wormholes are fascinating.’ This is a way to explore very fundamental problems of the universe in the laboratory.”
