Can Wormholes Be Integrated into the Standard Model of Physics?

[mitchell porter]

Apparently the Internet hasn't noticed this paper yet:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1807.04726
Traversable wormholes in four dimensions
Juan Maldacena, Alexey Milekhin, Fedor Popov
(Submitted on 12 Jul 2018)
We present a wormhole solution in four dimensions. It is a solution of an Einstein Maxwell theory plus charged massless fermions. The fermions give rise to a negative Casimir-like energy, which makes the wormhole possible. It is a long wormhole that does not lead to causality violations in the ambient space. It can be viewed as a pair of entangled near extremal black holes with an interaction term generated by the exchange of fermion fields. The solution can be embedded in the Standard Model by making its overall size small compared to the electroweak scale.

It avoids time travel paradox by being longer than the normal distance between the ends. If I have read the paper correctly, to realize this within the standard model, you would have a loop of hypercharge flux threading the wormhole, and the negative energy required by the geometry would arise from excitation modes of hypercharged fermion fields that are associated with the loop of flux.

To some extent this line of investigation has come from Maldacena & Susskind's "ER = EPR", and I wonder just how small you can make this construction. Can you have a spacetime which is just a network of wormholes? Could such a spacetime be understood in almost graph-theoretic terms? And: this wormhole is said to be equivalent to two entangled black holes - could you build up homogeneous macroscopic spacetime by starting with a network of such wormholes, and then appropriately entangling their endpoints?

 

[AndyW]

Thank you for sharing this interesting paper with us. It seems that this solution presents some intriguing possibilities for understanding the nature of spacetime and its connection to quantum entanglement. I am not an expert in this specific field, but I can offer some thoughts on your questions.

Firstly, the existence of traversable wormholes in four dimensions is certainly a significant finding. It opens up new avenues for exploring the fundamental laws of physics and could potentially lead to a better understanding of the nature of spacetime. As for the idea of a spacetime made up entirely of wormholes, it is certainly an intriguing concept, but it would require further investigation and analysis to determine its feasibility and implications.

Regarding the possibility of building up a macroscopic spacetime by entangling the endpoints of multiple wormholes, it is certainly an interesting idea. However, it would require a deeper understanding of the mechanics of entanglement and its relationship to spacetime. It is also important to note that this solution is still at a theoretical stage and would require further experimentation and testing to fully validate its feasibility.

Overall, this paper presents exciting possibilities for further exploration and research. It will be interesting to see how this solution can be integrated into the Standard Model and what implications it may have for our understanding of the universe. Thank you again for bringing this to our attention.