Is there a Scientific/Mathematical justification for CREATING traversable wormholes?

[SpaceLaunchSystem]

I'll jump right into it: There (at least I think) are only two somewhat-ish plausible means for interstellar travel - Alcubierre Drive and Traversable Wormholes. I was thinking: would it be possible to create a traversable wormhole? Please correct me if i'm wrong, but I believe that would save a lot of time for detecting the wormhole in the first place. I'm wondering if there is an existing mathematical justification for building/creating a wormhole. It might even be faster than an Alcubierre Drive, that is if it doesn't consume a hugely unrealistic amount of energy.

[KSK]

I'll jump right into it: There (at least I think) are only two somewhat-ish plausible means for interstellar travel - Alcubierre Drive and Traversable Wormholes. I was thinking: would it be possible to create a traversable wormhole? Please correct me if i'm wrong, but I believe that would save a lot of time for detecting the wormhole in the first place. I'm wondering if there is an existing mathematical justification for building/creating a wormhole. It might even be faster than an Alcubierre Drive, that is if it doesn't consume a hugely unrealistic amount of energy.

Short answer: Yes. but turning that mathematical justification into reality isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Long answer cribbed from Wikipedia, Wormholes are allowed within General Relativity (so have a mathematical justification), although processes are known that would create them naturally. For traversable wormholes:

"Wormholes that could be crossed in both directions, known as traversable wormholes, would only be possible if exotic matter with negative energy density could be used to stabilize them."

Again, negative energy density is apparently OK within quantum field theory, so has a mathematical justification.

Edited January 13, 2015 by KSK

[Mazon Del]

Incidentally, my understanding has been that the point of the negative matter is basically to 'push' open the mouth of the wormhole and keep it from collapsing. I've always wondered, if this is true, couldn't you do away with the negative matter and instead have some sort of pulling effect (perhaps of a gravitational mass) to do the opposite?

[K^2]

Incidentally, my understanding has been that the point of the negative matter is basically to 'push' open the mouth of the wormhole and keep it from collapsing. I've always wondered, if this is true, couldn't you do away with the negative matter and instead have some sort of pulling effect (perhaps of a gravitational mass) to do the opposite?

That's more of an illustration than explanation of what really happens. All known wormhole configurations end up having an event horizon, and are therefore not traversable, whenever only positive energy is used. All traversable wormholes will have some negative energy density. This is purely a consequence of geometry being traversable. It's not really a matter of "pushing" anything.

[Bill Phil]

So, wormholes for Alcubierre Drive?

[Rakaydos]

So, wormholes for Alcubierre Drive?

Better, an Alcubierre Drive powered through a wormhole. Smaller vehical doesnt need to carry it's own exotic mattter production, and you move a functional wormhole exit at FTL- equivilant speeds.

[Technical Ben]

Mathematically I have have both one apple, zero apples and negative apples.

But in reality, it's rather hard to make "negative apple sauce". Thus, negative energies and such like, while mathematically possible, are still theoretic impossibilities or improbabilities until realised or proven impossible.

[Nuke]

jsut dont put your negative apples in the same fruit basket as positive oranges. that could make a mess.

[meve12]

A mess involving gamma rays, or...?

[TiredMoose]

Again, negative energy density is apparently OK within quantum field theory, so has a mathematical justification.

Unfortunately, even if you had a boatload of negative energy, you still couldn't make a useful wormhole from scratch.

Your attempts would only result in the creation of a little pocket universe with a wormhole connection to the rest of the universe.

If you concentrated a bunch of negative energy in your front yard, all you'd do is make a tiny universe containing your house with a wormhole in the front yard connecting to the external universe.

To make a useful wormhole connecting distant places, you'd need to start with a pre-existing submicroscopic wormhole that does this.

You'd then use your negative energy to enlarge this tiny wormhole.

If submicroscopic wormholes in the "quantum spacetime foam" don't exist, you're SOL.

Source: The Physics of Stargates --Parallel Universes, Time Travel, and the Enigma of Wormhole Physics by Enrico Rodrigo

[Zuqq]

An excerpt from one of my favorite shows: Through the Wormhole.

Michio Kaku explains (a theory) how to create a wormhole. Of course it requires negative energy to stabilize. But overcomes the "pre-existing wormhole" problem.