Wormholes and FTL Travel; Sci-Fi and Science edge closer together

In 1935 Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen using the General Theory of Relativity as their base united two theories; that of black holes and white holes, together they created a theoretical Einstein-Rosen bridge that linked two parts of space or even two universes through a tunnel. They showed that if one could traverse such a tunnel you would effectively be travelling faster than light, as you would arrive before a beam of light sent through normal space at the same time. This would include light inside the tunnel also going faster relative to the light in normal space, though it would still only be travelling at the speed of light within the tunnel.

In 1962 John Wheeler coined the general term wormhole to encompass, the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, Lorentzian and Schwarzschild wormholes, whilst proving that this type of wormhole would be unstable and therefore practically unfeasible. 26 years later two men spurred by Carl Sagan proposed a way to keep the wormhole open.

Kip Thorne and Mike Morris postulated the Morris-Thorne Wormhole and published their theory in 1988. Carl Sagan had put it to Kip and his class to create an explanation behind a possible stable wormhole that he would employ as a key plot device in the book Contact. What they came up with was Exotic Matter or Antimatter which was repelled rather than attracted to gravity. If used in rings they could keep each side of the wormhole open and accessible. This was theoretically proven through calculation, and enabled Carl Sagan’s lead character to travel halfway across the universe, meet with an advanced civilisation, and travel back again, in what seemed like seconds on Earth. There was only one problem with the Morris-Thorne wormhole, where to find or make enough Exotic Matter to actually make this feasible.

In 2003 Matt Visser managed to calculate the required amount of Exotic Matter that would be needed to keep a wormhole open.

"The total quantity of ANEC-violating matter can be made infinitesimally small" -Matt Visser

This was calculated using Quantum Theory that gives rise to quantum fluctuations or sub atomic particles and their corresponding anti-particles popping in and out of existence in the vacuum of empty space. What this means is that at the quantum level there is no vacuum but rather:

"No point is more central than this, that empty space is not empty. It is the seat of the most violent physics."- John A. Wheeler

Matt Visser and his colleagues believed if you could suppress this hyper active state present in what is now known as Quantum Foam, then tiny amounts of Exotic Matter might arise from the resultant quantum effect. Despite being able to calculate this effect and the subsequent amount of Exotic Matter required to then line a wormhole mouth, no one has yet been able to isolate Exotic Matter and thereby collect it. Those perhaps closest to doing so are particle physicists and their super particle accelerators and collider’s.

The Large Hadron Collider under construction in Switzerland is expected to be finished May 2008. It is hoped that this collider will produce one mini black hole every second into which they will send quantum sized particles, and study the quantum effects of this and the black holes themselves. Studies undertaken at the LHC facility could well see many theoretical wormhole calculations proven and disproved and feasible solutions revealed. However there is another way to create stable wormholes and perhaps a bit more, with Exotic Matter and its negative energy density, and it stems from the Casimir Effect.

In 1948 Hendrick Casimir predicted the small attractive force effect that would be caused by two close parallel uncharged conducting plates. In 1996 the Casimir effect was confirmed experimentally by Steven Lamoreaux at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA. When the two plates move together less fluctuating electro-magnetic waves, across the full spectrum, could contribute to the vacuum energy between the plates. As a result the energy density falls below that of the vacuum outside the plates and a tiny force arises that seeks to pull the plates further together. This force was measured and has proven the Quantum Vacuum Theory previously only a calculated prediction theory.

Thus this provided evidence for the Quantum Vacuum or what classical physics would call empty space. Not so empty after all but as Wheeler stated, a seat of the most violent physics, that comprised Quantum Foam in a Quantum Vacuum. It is in the Quantum Vacuum, it is predicted that mini-wormholes are forming in and out of existence all the time. If one of these mini-wormholes could be enlarged with the careful addition of energy, then the Casimir Effect could stabilise the resulting larger wormhole. This could be achieved by placing two charged Superconducting spheres into either side of the wormhole, once stabilised in this manner you effectively have a practical two mouthed wormhole.

These two connected mouths could then be transported wherever you liked, from Africa to Europe or from our planet to another galaxy. The far end would however have to be transported at sub light speed to get to its destination, a long journey there but fairly quick one back, not forgetting you could still travel from the spaceship to earth through the wormhole gates. Though the Casimir effect also seems to theoretically give us an FTL or Faster than Light spaceship too.

The Alcubierre Warp Drive was suggested in 1994 by Miguel Alcubierre a theoretical physicist. A fan of Star Trek, Miguel wondered if an FTL drive could exist or be created at least in principal, and so he set out to investigate this possibility. His aim was to be able to mathematically describe an artificially created localised gravitational field that would allow a space time warp to serve as a superluminal propulsion system or an FTL warp drive.

What Miguel concluded was if you could create a warp bubble that encompassed the spaceship. This bubble would then expand space time behind it and contract space time ahead of it and effectively ride the wave between the two at FTL speeds. This would occur without breaking the known physical laws, because space time inside the bubble would be normal or at rest, much like light travelling inside a wormhole is faster than light relative to normal space. Though again it all hinges on finding and using Exotic Matter or negative space density to become a practical experimental theory.

"The first warp drive is still a long way off but maybe it has now become slightly less improbable." -Chris Van Den Broeck

Chris worked further on Miguel’s calculations and in so doing discovered, like Matt Visser with wormholes gates, that the amount of energy required would be far less than Miguel first suggested.

The fog of mystery over the crazy and wonderful world of Quantum Physics slowly lifts through the hard ongoing work of scientists throughout the world. As we begin to understand more and more, the Science-Fiction which spurs these studies forward is slowly but surely edging its way toward becoming provable science. Wormholes and FTL travel is on the verge of turning from a mere possibility into feasible practical applications. Given the exponential nature of scientific discovery in the last century, we could well see this happen in our or our grand children’s lifetimes. The sooner the better, we really do need a practical way off our planet and out into the larger universe, before we collapse under the weight of our own numbers and our mass effect on the planet’s ecosystems