Recent content by A Middle Aged Man

I'm going to read some more about this sort of topic from some other sources, but its been a stimulating discourse so far. Thanks for the detailed replies from all and I'm looking foward to learning more, both on my own and with more questions!

So, originally, there were never any serious proposals for wormholes in our actual universe? Just wormholes for a hypothetical universe that existed only on paper?

does the gravitational collapse in question go like this: in wormhole formation, some kind of gravitational collapse is what is necessary to form one. Isn't that what it means when two very dense points [like black holes] 'join' by 'collapsing' and forming a tube i.e. wormhole between each...

I'm an amateur, but I think I'm making progress: the gravitational collapse needed to form the 'link', the wormhole between two points, even if incredibly briefly, is impossible?

I didn't know that (then again, I don't know much I admit). If the details are too much I understand, but if its doable to summarize...what are the other reasons that its impossible for such a wormhole to form?

PeterDonis, So the wormhole that falls apart so fast that even a single photon isn't fast enough to get through it (therefore making it useless for transporting anything), is THAT also ruled out by the physics knowledge we have so far?

Ok, so to recap what I think I understand and remember from reading about wormholes: a) wormholes are consistent and allowed with current knowledge of physics, however... b) it requires some kind of negative mass to actually keep them open and functional, and... c) AANEC, if its predictions...

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it! Is it enough to rule out the other stuff i.e. wormholes and warp drives? I thought there were theoretical ways of having those without 'closed timelike curves', or time travel.

Informative, interesting, and I want to know more, however... even the kind of lay explanation given in the medium.com article left me confused [to say nothing of actual, technical papers]. How is it theorized to work? Or maybe it can't be described simply enough for me. My fault of course...

I'm not an expert, I'm definitely a scifi fan, But I'm hoping for professional opinions on a particular view of the old wormholes and/or warp drives issue... A quote from scientist Tim Andersen: "Achronal Average Null Energy Condition or AANEC may be the ultimate cosmic traffic cop making...

I hate to say "could you simplify it for me", but... :confused:

If dark energy is actually INCREASING, though, would that point to a continued increase and then finally overwhelming the universe in a big rip?

But if the expansion is accelerating why wouldn't it just keep going until it ripped? What would prevent it from doing anything else?

The expansion of the universe is accelerating. So the big rip is the best bet for how it ends isn't it? This fellow seems to think so: I guess the heat death is not the most likely, unless new evidence shows otherwise.