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Defense
Intelligence
Reference
Document
Acquisition Threat Support
[REDACTED]
6 April 2010
ICOD: 1 December 2009
DIA-08-1004-004
Traversable Wormholes,
Stargates, and Negative
Energy
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Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy
Prepared by:
(b)(3):10 USC 424
Defense Intelligence Agency
Author:
(b)(6)
Administrative Note
COPYRIGHT WARNING: Further dissemination of the photographs in this publication is not authorized.
This product is one in a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009
under the Defense Intelligence Agency (b)(3):10 USC 424 Advanced Aerospace
Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. Comments or questions pertaining to
this document should be addressed to (b)(3):10 USC 424;(b)(6) AAWSA Program
Manager, Defense Intelligence Agency, ATTN (b)(3):10 USC 424 Bldg 6000, Washington,
DC 20340-5100.
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Contents
I. Summary ........................................................................................................v
II. A Brief Review of Transversable Wormholes and the Stargate Solution ........... 1
A. Traversable Wormholes ......................................................................... 1
B. The "Stargate" Solution ......................................................................... 4
C. What a Wormhole Looks Like in the Real World ......................................... 7
III. The General Relativistic Definition of Exotic Matter and the Energy Conditions 9
A. Examples of Exotic or "Negative" Energy Found in Nature.......................... 10
B. Generating Negative Energy in the Lab .................................................... 11
1. Static Radial Electric & Magnetic Fields ................................................. 11
2. Squeezed Quantum Vacuum................................................................ 12
3. Gravitationally Squeezed Electromagnetic ZPF........................................ 16
4. Vacuum Field Stress: Negative Energy from the Casimir Effect ................. 18
5. Dynamical Casimir Effect: Moving Mirrors .............................................. 20
6. Casimir Effect: Negative Energy for Traversable Wormholes...................... 20
IV. Constructing a Traversable Wormhole is not Easy ....................................... 21
A. Negative Energy Requirements and Energy Condition Violations .................. 21
B. Physical Constraints on Negative Energy .................................................. 22
C. Observing Negative Energy in the Lab...................................................... 25
V. Conclusion: The Way Forward ...................................................................... 26
VI. References................................................................................................ 29
Figures
Figure 1. Intra-Universe Wormhole as a Hyperspace Shortcut Through
Conventional Space .........................................................................vi
Figure 2. Inter-Universe Wormhole (top) and Intra-Universe Wormhole (bottom).3
Figure 3. Diagram of a Simultaneous View of Two Remote Compact Regions, Ω1
and Ω2, of Minkowski Space Used to Create the Wormhole Throat δΩ...... 5
Figure 4. The Same Diagram as in Figure 3 Except as Viewed by an Observer
Sitting in Region Ω1 Who Looks Through the Wormhole Throat and Sees
Remote Region Ω2 on the Other Side. ................................................... 5
Figure 5. A Thin Shell of (Localized) Mass-Energy Possessing Two Principal Radii
of Curvature, ρ1 and ρ2 ..................................................................... 6
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Figure 6. A Spherically Symmetric Traversable Wormhole Observed in Space......... 7
Figure 7. A Stargate ....................................................................................... 8
Figure 8. A Stargate in Times Square ............................................................... 9
Figure 9. Conceptual Squeezed Light Negative Energy Generator ........................ 14
Figure 10. Sodium Chamber Negative Energy Separator .................................... 15
Figure 11. Alternative Conceptual Squeezed Light Negative Energy Generator .... 15
Figure 12. Schematic of the Casimir Effect ....................................................... 18
Tables
Table 1. Substantial Gravitational Squeezing Occurs for Vacuum ZPF ................ 18
Table 2. Negative Equivalent Mass Required for Traversable Wormhole .............. 22
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Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy
I. Summary
Implementation of faster-than-light (FTL) interstellar travel via traversable
wormholes generally requires the engineering of spacetime into very
specialized local geometries. The analysis of these via Einstein's General
Theory of Relativity, plus the resultant equations of state, demonstrates that
such geometries require the use of "exotic" matter. It has been claimed that
since such matter violates the energy conditions, FTL spacetimes are not
plausible. However, it has been shown that this is a spurious issue. The
identification, magnitude, and production of exotic matter are seen to be a key
technical challenge, however. These issues are reviewed and summarized, and
an assessment on the present state of their resolution is provided.
In 1985 CalTech physicists M. Morris and K. Thorne discovered the principle of
traversable wormholes based on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity
(published in 1915). Morris and Thorne (Reference 1) and Morris et al.
(Reference 2) did this as an academic exercise at the request of Carl Sagan,
who had completed the draft of his novel Contact. This little exercise led to the
development of two new cottage industries in spacetime physics research: the
study of traversable wormholes and the study of time machines. Wormholes
are hyperspace tunnels through spacetime connecting either remote regions
within our universe or two different universes; they even connect different
dimensions and different times. Space travelers would enter one side of the
tunnel and exit the other, passing through the throat along the way. The
travelers would move at ≤ c (c is the speed of light, 3 × 10⁸ m/s) through the
wormhole and therefore not violate Special Relativity, but external observers
would view the travelers as traversing multi-light-year distances through
space at FTL speed; Figure 1 illustrates this effect. A "stargate" is a special
class of traversable wormhole solutions to Einstein's general relativistic field
equation that possesses very simple physics and flat entry and exit openings.
Traversable wormholes are unlike the well-known, non-traversable Einstein-
Rosen Bridges or Schwarzschild wormholes that are formed from collapsed
stellar matter (that is, black holes) or spherically symmetric vacuum regions.
Black holes are collapsed stars that have all their mass concentrated at an
infinitesimal point where the induced gravitational field crushes all matter and
spacetime. However, even Einstein-Rosen bridges can be made traversable by
an infinitesimal tweaking of their spacetime metric. In the case of black holes,
the singularity of collapsed matter, along with its crushing gravity field, totally
blocks the way through the tunnel. A traversable wormhole does not have a
singularity blocking the tunnel or any crushing gravity field. Explorers would
enter one side of the tunnel, travel through the throat, and exit the other side.
Traversable wormholes also do not possess an event horizon, a region of high
gravitational field strength separating the inside space surrounding the black
hole's singularity from the outside universe. Once you go through a black
hole's event horizon, you can never come back out because you will have to
attain FTL speed to escape it. Not even light can escape from an event horizon.
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[FIGURE: Wormhole diagram showing Earth at top, Sirius at bottom left, with labels "Wormhole", "Hyperspace", "Conventional Space", and text "Distance from Earth to Sirius: 54 Trillion Miles (90 Trillion Kilometers)"]
Figure 1. Intra-Universe Wormhole as a Hyperspace Shortcut Through Conventional Space
Traversable wormholes are creatures of classical general relativity theory
allowing for very comfortable travel through the Cosmic Neighborhood. But
from the viewpoint of modern physics, the Cosmic Neighborhood can
encompass other universes, other space dimensions, and other times beyond
the four-dimensional spacetime realm. Mankind has certainly not discovered
all of the universe's facets and will need to continue to construct new
experiments and technology in order to verify (or not) these undiscovered
facets. Wormholes can possess normal or backward (in special cases) motion
through time and normal or nonexistent gravitational stresses on space
travelers, and their entry/exit openings (or throats) are spherically shaped,
flat, cubic shaped, polyhedral shaped, generic shaped, and so forth.
Why consider wormholes for travel through space, time, and other dimensions?
All standard space propulsion engineering is based on Newton's three laws of
motion, which is dependent on the expenditure of propellant to induce thrust-
generating momentum transfer on a spacecraft. Many investigators have
proposed interstellar propulsion schemes based on a variety of nuclear (fission,
fusion, and pulsed) rockets, electric (ion or plasma) rockets, matter-
antimatter annihilation rockets, solar or laser sails, fusion or laser ramjets,
interstellar ion scoops, beamed energy propulsion (sails, rockets, and ramjets),
and so forth. Many of these modes either have been experimentally tested at
one time or another in our recent history or remain as theoretical proposals,
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but all are based on Newtonian mechanics. The limiting speed of space flight,
based on any of these modes, is the speed of light. It is important to point out
that for the interstellar travel application, Newtonian rocket propulsion modes
suffer from enormous mass ratios > 10⁵ - 10¹⁰⁰ (depending on the specific
impulse) for spacecraft cruise velocities > 0.05c, if the travel time is
constrained to within 100 years for a one-way interstellar voyage. If the cruise
velocity is increased to sub-relativistic, near-relativistic, or even ultra-
relativistic speeds and thus reduces the one-way travel time, then the mass
ratio increases (exponentially!). The mass ratio is the initial spacecraft mass
(payload + structure + propellant) at launch divided by the final spacecraft
mass (payload + structure) at "burnout." The large ratios given above show
that Newtonian rockets consist mostly of propellant in order to propel the
propellant, along with a given tiny payload, through interstellar space. The
specific impulse is a measure of rocket propulsion system efficiency: how
much impulse (thrust multiplied by time) is produced per unit of mass of
propellant expenditure. It is desired that rocket propulsion systems possess a
very high specific impulse in order to reduce the mass ratio, and hence
propellant mass requirement, to reasonable levels.
The non-traditional propulsion modes (sails, ramjets, beamed power, etc.)
have different efficiencies and constraints, but they are all still dependent on
Newtonian mechanics, even though their mass ratio and specific impulse
characteristics are slightly improved over that of the traditional modes. But all
traditional and non-traditional propulsion modes come with a great cost in
interstellar voyage travel time. At non-relativistic and sub-relativistic cruise
speeds, it will take explorers several human lifetimes to reach stellar
destinations. At low relativistic to ultra-relativistic cruise speeds, the travel
time will be reduced to hours, days, weeks, months, or years. However, at
these cruise speeds, relativistic time dilation will kick in, and the returning
interstellar voyagers will find that decades to thousands of years have elapsed
on Earth since their launch date and that their families and culture no longer
exist or are unrecognizable. This is an undesirable outcome for any interstellar
voyage. Furthermore, traditional Newtonian propulsion cannot transcend time
or spacetime dimensions or universes.
The solution to this problem is to dispense entirely with long interstellar
voyage times or the undesirable outcome of relativistic time dilation. Explorers
could deploy a wormhole-stargate near the Earth's surface, in Earth's orbit, or
anywhere in the solar system they like and just pass through the "stargate"
and come out the other side in remote spacetime within seconds, moving
through the throat at low cruise speeds (30 mph!) and with no time dilation
effects. Explorers could travel through the wormhole-stargates in small scout
ships or send probes unencumbered by either enormous propellant mass
ratios or extensive life support provisions. Effective travel time through the
Cosmic Neighborhood via stargates would become irrelevant but could be
estimated to be many times or thousands of times the speed of light. Explorers
could spend all day investigating the remote spacetime location and then
return home through the stargate in time to have dinner with their families. If
explorers were to really push the envelope, they would design their stargate
so they could return from their voyage in time to wave goodbye to themselves
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as they see themselves depart on their journey. This is no longer recognized in
classical general relativity physics as a time paradox issue. It is very easy to
build a time machine, given a traversable wormhole. But time travel via
wormhole is beyond the scope of this paper. Suffice it to say that classical
general relativity theory is seriously infested with time machines; the theory
both allows for and demands time travel in order to preserve self-consistency
of dynamic spacetime solutions for just about every problem ever studied.
Implementation of FTL interstellar travel via traversable wormholes generally
requires the engineering of spacetime into very specialized local geometries.
Analysis of these via the general relativistic field equation, plus the resultant
source matter equations of state, demonstrates that such geometries require
the use of "exotic" matter in order to produce the requisite FTL spacetime
modification. Exotic matter is generally defined by general relativity physics to
be matter that possesses (renormalized) negative energy density (sometimes
negative stress-tension = outward pressure, aka gravitational repulsion or
antigravity). This term is very misunderstood and misapplied by the non-
general-relativity community. This misconception can be cleared up by
defining what negative energy is and where it can be found in nature and by
reviewing the proposed experimental concepts for generating negative energy
in the laboratory. In addition, it has been claimed that FTL spacetimes are not
plausible because exotic matter violates the general relativistic energy
conditions. However, this has been shown to be a spurious issue. The
identification, magnitude, and production of exotic matter are seen as key
technical challenges, however. FTL spacetimes also possess features that
challenge the notions of causality, and quantum effects allegedly place
constraints on them. These issues are reviewed and summarized, and an
assessment on the present state of their resolution is provided.
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II. A Brief Review of Transversable Wormholes and the
Stargate Solution
How does one study the physics of FTL spacetimes within the framework of general
relativity theory? When studying spacetime physics, the normal philosophy is to take
the general relativistic field equation, add some form of matter, make simplifying
assumptions, and then solve to deduce what the geometry of spacetime will be.¹ This is
very difficult to do because there are ten nonlinear second-order partial differential
equations with four redundancies (arbitrary choice of spacetime coordinates) and four
constraints (stress-energy conservation). There is a tremendous body of research that
takes exactly this approach, either analytically or numerically. However, this is not the
best strategy for understanding wormhole spacetimes. The appropriate strategy is to
decide beforehand on a definition of the traversable wormhole that you desire and
decide what the spacetime geometry should look like. Given the desired geometry, use
the general relativistic field equation to calculate the distribution of matter required to
set up this geometry. Then one needs to assess whether the required distribution of
matter is physically reasonable and whether it violates any basic rules of physics, etc.
The following sections briefly outline the key results for traversable wormholes.
A. TRAVERSABLE WORMHOLES
Traversable wormholes represent a class of exact metric solutions of the general
relativistic field equation. The solutions are "exact" in the sense that no approximations
requiring a plethora of physical assumptions have to be made to derive the appropriate
spacetime geometry. To define a stable traversable wormhole one needs to define the
desirable physical requirements it is to have in order to achieve the desired FTL travel
benefit. The desired requirements are the following (Reference 1, 3):
• Travel time through the wormhole tunnel or throat should be ≤ 1 year as seen by
both the travelers and outside static observers.
• Proper time as measured by travelers should not be dilated by relativistic effects.
• The gravitational acceleration and tidal-gravity accelerations between different parts
of the travelers' body should be ≤ 1 g₀ (g₀ is the acceleration of gravity near the
Earth's surface, 9.81 m/s²) when going through the wormhole.
• Travel speed through the tunnel/throat should be < c.
• Travelers (made of ordinary matter) must not couple strongly to the material that
generates the wormhole curvature; the wormhole must be threaded by a vacuum
tube through which the travelers can move.
• There is no event horizon at the wormhole throat.
¹ The Einstein field equation is: Gμν = Rμν − [(1/2) gμν R] = −(8πG/c⁴)Tμν, where Gμν is the Einstein curvature tensor,
Rμν is the Ricci curvature tensor, R = Rμμ (the trace of Rμν) is the Ricci scalar curvature, Tμν is the stress-energy-
momentum tensor (a matrix quantity that encodes the density and flux of a matter source's energy and
momentum), G is Newton's universal gravitation constant (6.673 × 10–11 Nm²/kg²), and c is the speed of light. In
simplest terms, this relation states that gravity is a manifestation of the spacetime curvature (Gμν) induced by a
source of matter (Tμν). The Greek indices (μ, ν = 0...3) denote spacetime coordinates, x₀...x₃, such that x₁...x₃ =
space coordinates and x₀ = time coordinate.
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• There is no singularity of infinitely collapsed matter residing at the wormhole throat.
These requirements then lead us to define a spherically symmetric Lorentzian
spacetime metric, ds²,² that prescribes the required traversable wormhole geometry
(Reference 1, 3):
ds² = −e^(2φ(r))c²dt² + [1 − b(r)/r]⁻¹dr² + r²dΘ² (1)
where standard spherical-polar coordinates are used (r: 2πr = circumference; 0 ≤ θ ≤ π;
0 ≤ φ ≤ 2π), t is time (−∞ < t < ∞), dΘ² = dθ² + sin²θ dφ², φ(r) is the freely specifiable
redshift function that defines the proper time lapse through the wormhole throat, and
b(r) is the freely specifiable shape function that defines the wormhole throat's spatial
(hypersurface) geometry. The throat is spherically shaped. There are a large number of
variations of Equation (1), which define traversable wormholes having different
properties. The reader should consult (Reference 3) for further details. By inserting
Equation (1) into the Einstein field equation and cranking through the math, one can
derive the density and flux of energy and momentum (a.k.a. pressure) encoded by Tμν
for the source of matter that is required to produce the traversable wormhole. The
results show that the source of matter must have zero or negative energy density
and/or an outward radial tension (negative pressure) that is larger than the magnitude
of the energy density (Reference 1-3). Travelers moving through the throat at very
high speed will tend to measure a negative energy density. These exotic properties are
required to create and thread open the wormhole, and stabilize it against collapse (see
Section III for more details).
The technical description of a trip through a spherically symmetric traversable
wormhole is simply given by the proper time and/or the proper distance of travel
through its throat as measured by space travelers, while the (radial) travel velocity
through the throat is v = v(r) < c. The proper time of travel as measured by space
travelers going through the wormhole is given by Δτ = ∫(γν)⁻¹dλ, where γ ≡ [1 −
(v/c)²]⁻¹/² and the integration (over the element of proper distance, dλ) is taken from
the wormhole entrance to its exit. The proper distance of travel as measured by the
space travelers is Δλ = νΔτ. Remote static observers watching the space travelers go
through the wormhole will measure their travel time to be Δt = ∫(νe^(φ(r)))⁻¹dλ and their
travel distance will be Δλ = νΔt, where the integration is taken over the same limits as
before.
² A spacetime metric, ds², is a Lorentz-invariant distance function between any two points in spacetime that is
defined by ds² = gμν dx^μ dx^ν, where gμν is the metric tensor which is a 4×4 matrix that encodes the geometry of
spacetime and dx^μ is the infinitesimal coordinate separation between two points.
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Figure 2 shows two diagrams
representing the embedded space
(Flamm diagram) representation of
Equation (1), which depicts the
geometry of an equatorial (θ = π/2)
slice through space at a specific
moment of time (t = const). The top of
Figure 2 shows the embedding diagram
for a traversable wormhole that
connects two different universes (i.e.,
an inter-universe wormhole). The
bottom diagram in the figure is an intra-
universe wormhole with a throat that
connects two distant regions of our own
universe. These diagrams serve to aide
in visualizing traversable wormhole
geometry and are merely a geometrical
exaggeration.
There was originally one other criterion
for defining a traversable wormhole,
which was that it must be embedded
within the surrounding (asymptotically)
flat spacetime. However, Hochberg and Figure 2. Inter-Universe Wormhole (top) and Intra-
Visser (Reference 4) proved that it is only Universe Wormhole (bottom).
the behavior near the wormhole throat that is
critical to understanding the physics, and that a generic throat can be defined without
having to make all the symmetry assumptions and without assuming the existence of
an asymptotically flat spacetime in which to embed the wormhole. Therefore, one only
needs to know the generic features of the geometry near the throat in order to
guarantee violations of the Null Energy Condition (NEC; see Section III for further
detail) for certain open regions near the throat. So one is free to place our wormhole
anywhere in spacetime because it is only the geometry and physics near the throat that
matters for any analysis. This fact led to the development of a number of different
traversable wormhole throat designs that are cubic shaped, polyhedral shaped, flat-face
shaped, generic shaped, etc. The reader should consult (Reference 3) for a complete
technical review of the various types (and shapes) of traversable wormhole solutions
found in general relativity theory.
One knows that one needs exotic or negative energy to create and thread open a
traversable wormhole. So in this regard, one asks what kind of wormhole one can make
with less effort. To answer this question one can relate the local wormhole geometry to
the global topological invariant of the spacetime via the Gauss-Bonnet Theorem
(Reference 5). In the Gauss-Bonnet Theorem the local wormhole geometry is quantified
by the energy density, U (in geometrodynamic units, η = G = c = 1), threading the
wormhole throat plus a spatial curvature constant (for the throat). The global
topological invariant of spacetime is quantified by the Euler Number, χ_e, which is itself
defined in terms of the genus, g, representing the number of handles (or throats or
tunnels) a wormhole can be assigned. These two topological quantities are related via
χ_e = 2(1 − g). Therefore, the (static) wormhole Gauss-Bonnet relation is given by U ≤
χ_e/4 or U ≤ (1 − g)/2 (Reference 5). (The case for dynamic traversable wormholes has
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results that are similar to the static case.) This relation will help to decide if a
traversable wormhole having one throat, or two or more throats should be built and at
what energy cost this will incur.
The following is the result of our analysis for traversable wormholes having:
• 1-handle/throat (i.e., flat torus or spherical wormhole topology) giving g = 1, thus
χ_e = 0, and so U ≤ 0
• 2-handles/throats giving g = 2, thus χ_e = −2, and so U ≤ −1/2
• 3-handles/throats giving g = 3, thus χ_e = −4, and so U ≤ −1; and so on.
It is clear from this that as the number of wormhole handles/throats increases the
amount of negative energy required to create the wormhole will grow larger in
magnitude. This is an undesirable demand on any putative negative energy generator.
It is clear then that item (a) defines the most desirable engineering solution one can
hope for: a 1-handle/throat traversable wormhole that will require zero or (arbitrarily)
little negative energy to create. The magnitude of energy condition violations and the
amount of negative energy required to build a traversable wormhole will be addressed.
B. THE "STARGATE" SOLUTION
It is a straightforward exercise to design a real "stargate" from wormhole physics. A
stargate is essentially a traversable wormhole with a flat-face shape for the throat as
opposed to the spherical-shaped throat of the Morris and Thorne wormhole as discussed
in the previous section. A traveler going through a stargate will simply be shunted into
another remote spacetime region within our universe or into another universe.
The flat-face traversable wormhole solution is derived from the thin shell (a.k.a.
junction condition or surface layer) formalism of the Einstein field equation (Reference
6, 7). The procedure is to take two copies of flat Minkowski space and remove from
each identical regions of the form Ω × ℜ, where Ω is a three-dimensional compact
spacelike hypersurface and ℜ is a timelike line (time axis). Then identify these two
incomplete spacetimes along the timelike boundaries ∂Ω × ℜ. The resulting spacetime is
geodesically complete and possesses two asymptotically flat regions connected by a
traversable wormhole. The throat of the wormhole is just the junction ∂Ω, which is a
two-dimensional space-like hypersurface, at which the two original Minkowski spaces
are identified (see Figures 3 and 4).
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[FIGURE: Diagram showing two irregular blob-shaped regions labeled Ω₁ (left) and Ω₂ (right), each with a boundary labeled ∂Ω, separated by a vertical wavy line]
Figure 3. Diagram of a Simultaneous View of Two Remote Compact Regions, Ω₁ and Ω₂, of Minkowski
Space Used to Create the Wormhole Throat ∂Ω (time is suppressed in this diagram)
[FIGURE: Diagram showing region Ω₁ on the left looking through a circular/oval aperture labeled ∂Ω, with dotted region Ω₂ visible on the other side]
Figure 4. The Same Diagram as in Figure 3 Except as Viewed by an Observer Sitting in Region Ω₁ Who
Looks Through the Wormhole Throat ∂Ω and Sees Remote Region Ω₂ (dotted area inside the circle) on
the Other Side
It is a standard result of the thin shell formalism that the Einstein field equation may be
cast in terms of the surface stress-energy tensor S^i_j of a thin shell of matter (or mass-
energy) localized inside the wormhole throat ∂Ω (Reference 8):
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S^i_j = − c⁴/(4πG) (K^i_j − δ^i_j K^k_k) (2)
where the second fundamental form K^i_j is a matrix that represents the extrinsic
curvature of ∂Ω (telling how the wormhole throat is curved with respect to the
enveloping four-dimensional spacetime), δ^i_j is the three-dimensional unit matrix, and
K^k_k is the trace (sum of diagonal matrix elements) of K^i_j.³ K^i_j is a diagonal matrix
having the two principal radii of curvature, ρ₁ and ρ₂, of the thin shell as its components
(see Figure 5). S^i_j may be interpreted in terms of the thin shell's surface energy density
σ and principal surface tensions, ϑ₁ and ϑ₂, which are also diagonal matrix components.
thin shell of mass-energy
ρ1
[FIGURE: 3D mesh surface depicting a thin shell of localized mass-energy with two principal radii of curvature labeled ρ1 and ρ2]
Figure 5. A Thin Shell of (Localized) Mass-Energy Possessing Two Principal Radii of Curvature, ρ₁ and
ρ₂.
ρ2
Equation (2) is solved and the components of S^i_j are found to be (Reference 8):
σ = − c⁴/(4πG) (1/ρ₁ + 1/ρ₂) (3a)
³ The Latin indices (i, j, k = 0...2) denote three-dimensional hypersurface coordinates, x⁰...x², such that x¹, x² =
space coordinates and x⁰ = time coordinate.
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ϑ₁ = − c⁴/(4πG) · 1/ρ₂ (3b)
ϑ₂ = − c⁴/(4πG) · 1/ρ₁ (3c)
These are the Einstein field equations for a traversable wormhole that is produced by a
thin shell of localized matter. Equations (3a-c) imply that (for ∂Ω a convex
hypersurface) one is dealing with negative surface energy density and negative surface
tensions. This is exotic matter! The negative surface tension (= positive outward
pressure, a.k.a. gravitational repulsion) is required to keep the throat open and stable
against collapse. To make this thin shell wormhole entirely flat requires that one
chooses the throat ∂Ω to have at least one flat face (picture the thin shell in Figure 5
becoming flat). On that face the two principal radii of curvature become ρ₁ = ρ₂ = ∞ as
required by standard three-dimensional geometry; therefore, substituting this
requirement into Equations (3a-c) gives:
σ = ϑ₁ = ϑ₂ = 0 (4)
which is a remarkable result. This [FIGURE: Black and white photograph showing
means that a traveler encountering and a spherically symmetric traversable wormhole
going through such a wormhole- observed in space]
stargate will feel no tidal gravitational
forces and see no exotic matter
threading the throat. A traveler stepping
through the throat will simply be
shunted into another remote spacetime
region or into another universe (note:
the Einstein field equation does not fix
the spacetime topology, so it is possible
that wormholes are inter-universe as
well as intra-universe tunnels).
Therefore, one can construct a stargate
by generating a thin shell or surface
layer of exotic matter much like a thin
film of soap stretched across a loop of
wire.
C. WHAT A WORMHOLE LOOKS Figure 6. A Spherically Symmetric Traversable
LIKE IN THE REAL WORLD Wormhole Observed in Space
The exotic matter threading a
traversable wormhole throat produces
repulsive gravity, which will then deflect
light rays going through and around it.
The entrance to the spherically symmetric Morris & Thorne wormhole looks like a
sphere that contains the mirror image of a whole other universe or remote region
within our own universe, incredibly shrunken and distorted (see Figure 6). This is an
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example of the topological inversion manifested in wormhole geometry. The spherical
wormhole entrance/exit (a.k.a. the throat) is called a hypersphere because it is the
hyperspace surface of our four-dimensional spacetime. If one were to travel through
the wormhole and look back at it from the other side, then one would see a sphere (the
entry way back home) that seemed to contain the whole original universe or home
region of space near Earth (within your universe). This would look just like a glass
Christmas tree ornament, which is just a spherical mirror that reflects, in principle, the
entire universe around it.
A flat-faced wormhole, or stargate, which is also a hypersurface, would not distort the
mirror image of the remote space region or other universe seen through it because the
negative surface energy density and negative surface tensions of the exotic matter
threading its throat is zero as seen and felt by light and matter passing through it
(recall Equation (4)). See Figures 7 and 8.
[FIGURE: Drawing showing a stargate with figures; left side shows distorted/alien view through a circular aperture, right side shows a person stepping through a thin vertical opening with arm extended]
Figure 7. A Stargate (adapted from Reference 9)
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[FIGURE: Black and white photograph of Times Square with a large arch-shaped portal superimposed on the scene]
Figure 8. A Stargate in Times Square
If a small wormhole (three or more dimensional) were to begin to appear or even bump
into our local space, one would perceive this process as the occurrence of an unusually
bright spot in the sky. Blue and red Doppler shifting of this bright spot would manifest
when the intersection of the wormhole with our local space grows or recedes,
respectively.
III. The General Relativistic Definition of Exotic Matter and
the Energy Conditions
This section will consider the physics of the exotic matter that is required to build
traversable wormholes. What exactly is "exotic" matter? In classical physics the energy
density of all observed forms of matter (fields) is non-negative. What is exotic about
the type of matter that must be used to generate traversable wormhole spacetime is
that it must have negative energy density and/or negative flux (Reference 10). The
energy density is "negative" in the sense that the configuration of matter fields one
must deploy to generate and thread a traversable wormhole throat must have an
energy density, ρ_E (= ρc², where ρ is the rest-mass density), that is less than or equal
to its pressures/tensions, p_i (Reference 1, 3).⁴ In many cases, these equations of state
are also known to possess an energy density that is algebraically negative, i.e., the
energy density and flux are less than zero. It is on the basis of these conditions that
⁴ From this point forward in the text, all Latin indices (e.g., i, j, k = 1...3) that are affixed to physical quantities
denote the usual 3-dimensional space coordinates, x¹...x³, indicating the spatial components of vector or tensor
quantities.
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one can call this material property "exotic." The condition for ordinary, classical (non-
exotic) forms of matter that all are familiar with in nature is that ρ_E > p_i and/or ρ_E ≥ 0.
These conditions represent two examples of what are variously called the "standard"
energy conditions: Weak Energy Condition (WEC: ρ_E ≥ 0, ρ_E + p_i ≥ 0), Null Energy
Condition (NEC: ρ_E + p_i ≥ 0), Dominant Energy Condition (DEC), and Strong Energy
Condition (SEC). These energy conditions forbid negative energy density between
material objects to occur in nature, but they are mere hypotheses. Hawking and Ellis
(Reference 11) formulated the energy conditions in order to establish a series of
mathematical hypotheses governing the behavior of collapsed-matter singularities in
their study of cosmology and black hole physics. More specifically, classical general
relativity allows one to prove lots of general theorems about the behavior of matter in
gravitational fields. The impact or implications of the DEC or SEC will not be considered
because they add no new information beyond the WEC and NEC.
The bad news is that real physical matter is not "reasonable" because the energy
conditions are in general violated by semiclassical quantum effects (occurring at order
ℏ) (Reference 3).⁵ More specifically, quantum effects generically violate the average
NEC (ANEC). Furthermore, it was discovered in 1965 that quantum field theory has the
remarkable property of allowing states of matter containing local regions of negative
energy density or negative fluxes (Reference 12). This violates the WEC, which
postulates that the local energy density is non-negative for all observers. And there are
also general theorems of differential geometry that guarantee that there must be a
violation of one, some, or all of the energy conditions (meaning exotic matter is
present) for all traversable wormhole spacetimes. With respect to creating traversable
wormhole spacetimes, "negative energy" has the unfortunate reputation of alarming
physicists. This is unfounded since all the energy condition hypotheses have been
experimentally tested in the laboratory and experimentally shown to be false – 25 years
before their formulation (Reference 13).
Further investigation into this technical issue showed that violations of the energy
conditions are widespread for all forms of both "reasonable" classical and quantum
matter (Reference 14-18). Furthermore, Visser (Reference 3) showed that all (generic)
spacetime geometries violate all the energy conditions. So the condition that ρ_E > p_i
and/or ρ_E ≥ 0 must be obeyed by all forms of matter in nature is spurious. Violating the
energy conditions commits no offense against nature. Negative energy has been
produced in the laboratory and this will be discussed in the following sections.
A. EXAMPLES OF EXOTIC OR "NEGATIVE" ENERGY FOUND IN
NATURE
The exotic (energy condition-violating) fields that are known to occur in nature are:
• Static, radially-dependent electric or magnetic fields. These are borderline exotic, if
their tension were infinitesimally larger, for a given energy density (Reference 11,
19).
• Squeezed quantum vacuum states: electromagnetic and other (non-Maxwellian)
quantum fields (Reference 1, 20).
⁵ Planck's reduced constant, ℏ = 1.055 × 10–34 J·s.
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• Gravitationally squeezed vacuum electromagnetic zero-point fluctuations (Reference
21).
• Casimir effect, i.e., the Casimir vacuum in flat, curved, and topological spaces
(Reference 22-28).
• Other quantum fields/states/effects. In general, the local energy density in quantum
field theory can be negative due to quantum coherence effects (Reference 12).
Other examples that have been studied are Dirac field states: the superposition of
two single particle electron states and the superposition of two multi-electron-
positron states (Reference 29, 30). In the former (latter), the energy densities can
be negative when two single (multi-) particle states have the same number of
electrons (electrons and positrons) or when one state has one more electron
(electron-positron pair) than the other.
Cosmological inflation (Reference 3), cosmological particle production (Reference 3),
classical scalar fields (Reference 3), the conformal anomaly (Reference 3), and
gravitational vacuum polarization (Reference 14-17) are among many other examples
that also violate the energy conditions. Since the laws of quantum field theory place no
strong restrictions on negative energies and fluxes, then it might be possible to produce
exotic phenomena such as faster-than-light travel (Reference 31-33), traversable
wormholes (Reference 1-3), violations of the second law of thermodynamics (Reference
34, 35), and time machines (Reference 2, 3, 36). There are several other exotic
phenomena made possible by the effects of negative energy, but they lie outside the
scope of the present study. This section will review the previously listed items 1 thru 4
and examine their applicability and technical maturity. Dirac field states are currently
under study by investigators. Also, the issue of capturing and storing negative energy is
not considered in what follows because free-space negative energy sources appear to
be a more desirable option for inducing traversable wormholes than stored negative
energy, and because there is very little technical literature that addresses how to
capture and store negative energy (see, e.g., Reference 10). The issue of capturing and
storing negative energy will be left for future investigations.
B. GENERATING NEGATIVE ENERGY IN THE LAB
1. Static Radial Electric & Magnetic Fields
It is beyond the scope of this study to include all the technical configurations by which
one can generate static, radially-dependent electric or magnetic fields. Suffice it to say
that ultrahigh-intensity tabletop lasers have been used to generate extreme electric and
magnetic field strengths in the lab. Ultrahigh-intensity lasers use the chirped-pulse
amplification (CPA) technique to boost the total output beam power. All laser systems
simply repackage energy as a coherent package of optical power, but CPA lasers
repackage the laser pulse itself during the amplification process. In typical high-power
short-pulse laser systems, it is the peak intensity, not the energy or the fluence, which
causes pulse distortion or laser damage. However, the CPA laser dissects a laser pulse
according to its frequency components, and reorders it into a time-stretched lower-
peak-intensity pulse of the same energy (Reference 37-39). This benign pulse can then
be amplified safely to high energy, and then only afterwards reconstituted as a very
short pulse of enormous peak power – a pulse which could never itself have passed
safely through the laser system. Made more tractable in this way, the pulse can be
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amplified to substantial energies (with orders of magnitude greater peak power)
without encountering intensity-related problems.
The extreme output beam power, fields and physical conditions that have been
achieved by ultrahigh-intensity tabletop lasers are (Reference 39):
• Power Intensity ≈ 10¹⁹ to 10³⁰ W/m² (10³⁴ W/m² using SLAC as a booster).
• Peak Power Pulse ≤ 10³ fs.
• Electric field, E ≈ 10¹⁴ to 10¹⁸ V/m [note: compare this with the critical quantum
electrodynamic (QED) vacuum breakdown E-field intensity, E_c = 2m_ec³/ℏe ≈ 10¹⁸
V/m, defined by the total rest-energy of an electron-positron pair created from the
vacuum divided by the electron's Compton wavelength]⁶.
• Magnetic field, B ≈ several × 10⁶ Tesla (note: the critical QED vacuum breakdown B-
field intensity is B_c = E_c/c ≈ 10¹⁰ Tesla).
• Ponderomotive Acceleration of Electrons ≈ 10¹⁷ to 10³⁰ g₀ (g₀ is the acceleration of
gravity near the Earth's surface, 9.81 m/s²).
• Light Pressure ≈ 10⁹ to 10¹⁵ bars.
• Plasma Temperatures > 10¹⁰ K.
The vigilant reader might assert that the electric and magnetic fields generated by
ultrahigh-intensity lasers are not static. But in fact, these fields are static over the
duration of the pulse-width while at peak intensity. The data above illustrates that
ultrahigh-intensity lasers can generate an electric field energy density ~ 10¹⁶ to 10²⁸
J/m³ and a magnetic field energy density ~ 10¹⁹ J/m³. However, there remains the
problem of engineering this type of experiment because classical electromagnetic
theory states that every observer associated with the experiment will see a non-
negative energy density that is ∝ E² + B², where E and B are measured in an observer's
reference frame. It is not known how to increase the tension in these fields using
current physics, but some new physics may provide an answer. This technical problem
must be left for future investigation.
2. Squeezed Quantum Vacuum
Substantial theoretical and experimental work has shown that in many quantum
systems the limits to measurement precision imposed by the quantum vacuum zero-
point fluctuations (ZPF) can be breached by decreasing the noise in one observable (or
measurable quantity) at the expense of increasing the noise in the conjugate
observable; at the same time the variations in the first observable, say the energy, are
reduced below the ZPF such that the energy becomes "negative." "Squeezing" is thus
the control of quantum fluctuations and corresponding uncertainties, whereby one can
squeeze/reduce the variance of one (physically important) observable quantity provided
the variance in the (physically unimportant) conjugate variable is stretched/increased.
The squeezed quantity possesses an unusually low variance, meaning less variance
than would be expected on the basis of the equipartition theorem. One can in principle
⁶ Electron mass, m_e = 9.11 × 10⁻³¹ kg; electron charge, e = 1.602 × 10⁻¹⁹ C.
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exploit quantum squeezing to extract energy from one place in the ordinary vacuum at
the expense of accumulating excess energy elsewhere (Reference 1).
The squeezed state of the electromagnetic field is a primary example of a quantum field
that has negative energy density and negative energy flux. Such a state became a
physical reality in the laboratory as a result of the nonlinear-optics technique of
"squeezing," i.e., of moving some of the quantum-fluctuations of laser light out of the
cos[ω(t − z/c)] part of the beam and into the sin[ω(t − z/c)] part (Reference 20, 40-
44).⁷ The observable that gets squeezed will have its fluctuations reduced below the
vacuum ZPF. The act of squeezing transforms the phase space circular noise profile
characteristic of the vacuum into an ellipse, whose semimajor and semiminor axes are
given by unequal quadrature uncertainties (of the quantized electromagnetic field
harmonic oscillator operators). This applies to coherent states in general, and the usual
vacuum is also a coherent state with eigenvalue zero. As this ellipse rotates about the
origin with angular frequency ω, these unequal quadrature uncertainties manifest
themselves in the electromagnetic field oscillator energy by periodic occurrences, which
are separated by one quarter cycle, of both smaller and larger fluctuations compared to
the unsqueezed vacuum.
Morris and Thorne (Reference 1) and Caves (Reference 45) point out that if one
squeezes the vacuum, i.e., if one puts vacuum rather than laser light into the input port
of a squeezing device, then one gets at the output an electromagnetic field with weaker
fluctuations and thus less energy density than the vacuum at locations where cos²[ω(t −
z/c)] ≅ 1 and sin²[ω(t − z/c)] << 1; but with greater fluctuations and thus greater
energy density than the vacuum at locations where cos²[ω(t − z/c)] << 1 and sin²[ω(t −
z/c)] ≅ 1. Since the vacuum is defined to have vanishing energy density, any region
with less energy density than the vacuum actually has a negative (renormalized)
expectation value for the energy density. Therefore, a squeezed vacuum state consists
of a traveling electromagnetic wave that oscillates back and forth between negative
energy density and positive energy density, but has positive time-averaged energy
density.
For the squeezed electromagnetic vacuum state, the energy density ρE-sqvac is given by
(Reference 46):
p_{F-sqvac} = (2hω/L³) sinh ξ [sinh ξ + cosh ξ cos(2ω(t − z/c) + δ)] (J/m³) (5)
where L³ is the volume of a large box with sides of length L (i.e., the quantum field is
placed in a box with periodic boundary conditions), ξ is the squeezed state amplitude
(giving a measure of the mean photon number in a squeezed state), and δ is the phase
of squeezing. Equation (5) shows that ρE-sqvac falls below zero once every cycle when the
condition cosh ξ > sinh ξ is met. It turns out that this is always true for every nonzero
value of ξ, so ρE-sqvac becomes negative at some point in the cycle for a general
squeezed vacuum state. On another note, when a quantum state is close to a squeezed
vacuum state, there will almost always be some negative energy densities present.
Negative energy can be generated by an array of ultrahigh-intensity lasers using an
ultra-fast rotating mirror system (Reference 47). In this scheme a laser beam is passed
⁷ ω is the angular frequency of light, t is time, and z denotes the z-axis direction of beam propagation.
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through an optical cavity resonator made of a lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) crystal that is
shaped like a cylinder with rounded silvered ends to reflect light. The resonator will act
to produce a secondary lower frequency light beam in which the pattern of photons is
rearranged into pairs. The squeezed light beam emerging from the resonator will
contain pulses of negative energy interspersed with pulses of positive energy.
In this concept both the negative and positive energy pulses are ~ 10⁻¹⁵ second
duration. In principle a set of rapidly rotating mirrors could be arranged to separate the
positive and negative energy pulses from each other. The light beam would be set to
strike each mirror surface at a very shallow angle while the rotation would ensure that
the negative energy pulses would be reflected at a slightly different angle from the
positive energy pulses. A small spatial separation of the two different energy pulses
would occur at some distance from the rotating mirror. Another system of mirrors
would be needed to redirect the negative energy pulses to an isolated location and
concentrate them there. See Figure 9 for an illustration of this concept.
[FIGURE: Diagram showing Laser & LiNbO₃ Resonator on left, Alternating Pulses of Negative & Positive Energy in middle, Rotating Redirector Mirror System above center, Positive Energy Pulses going upper right, Negative Energy Pulses going lower right, and Concentrated Negative Energy at far right]
Figure 9. Conceptual Squeezed Light Negative Energy Generator
The rotating mirror system can actually be implemented via non-mechanical means. A
chamber of sodium gas is placed within the squeezing cavity and a laser beam is
directed through the gas. The beam is reflected back on itself by a mirror to form a
standing wave within the sodium chamber. This wave causes rapid variations in the
optical properties of the sodium thus causing rapid variations in the squeezed light so
that one can induce rapid reflections of pulses by careful design (Reference 41). An
illustration of this is shown in Figure 10.
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[FIGURE: Diagram of Sodium Chamber Negative Energy Separator showing MIRROR on left, laser beam path through SODIUM CHAMBER in center, CAVITY label, and MIRROR on right]
Figure 10. Sodium Chamber Negative Energy Separator (Reference 41)
Another way to generate negative energy via squeezed light would be to manufacture
extremely reliable light pulses containing precisely one, two, three, etc., photons apiece
and combine them together to create squeezed states to order (Reference 47).
Superimposing many such states could theoretically produce bursts of intense negative
energy. See Figure 11 for a conceptual diagram of this concept. Photonic crystal
research has already demonstrated the feasibility of using photonic crystal waveguides
(mixing together the classical and quantum properties of optical materials) to engineer
light sources that produce beams containing precisely one, two, three, etc., photons.
For example, researchers at Melbourne University used a microwave oven to fuse a tiny
diamond, just 1/1000th of a millimeter long, onto an optical fiber, which could be used
to create a single photon beam of light (Reference 48, 49). The combining of different
beams containing different (finite integer) numbers of photons is already state-of-the-
art practice via numerous optical beam combining methods that can readily be
extended to our application.
[FIGURE: Schematic diagram showing alternating dash patterns representing Alternative Conceptual Squeezed Light Negative Energy Generator]
Figure 11 Alternative Conceptual Squeezed Light Negative Energy Generator
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Finally, Ries et al. (Reference 50) experimentally demonstrated the very first simple,
scalable squeezed vacuum source in the laboratory that consisted of a continuous-wave
diode laser and an atomic rubidium vapor cell. The experimental tools one needs to
begin exploring the generation of negative energy for the purpose of creating
traversable wormholes are just now becoming available.
3. Gravitationally Squeezed Electromagnetic ZPF
A natural source of negative energy comes from the effect that gravitational fields (of
astronomical bodies) in space have upon the surrounding quantum vacuum. For
example, the gravitational field of the Earth produces a zone of negative energy around
it by dragging some of the virtual quanta (a.k.a. vacuum ZPF) downward. This concept
was initially developed in the 1970s as a byproduct of studies on quantum field theory
in curved space (Reference 25). However, Hochberg and Kephart (Reference 21)
derived an important application of this concept to the problem of creating and
stabilizing traversable wormholes. They showed that one can utilize the negative energy
densities, which arise from distortion of the vacuum ZPF due to the interaction with a
prescribed gravitational background, for providing a violation of the energy conditions.
The squeezed quantum states of quantum optics provide a natural form of matter
having negative energy density.
The analysis, via quantum optics, showed that gravitation itself provides the
mechanism for generating the squeezed vacuum states needed to support stable
traversable wormholes. The production of negative energy densities via a squeezed
vacuum is a necessary and unavoidable consequence of the interaction or coupling
between ordinary matter and gravity, and this defines what is meant by gravitationally
squeezed vacuum states. The magnitude of the gravitational squeezing of the vacuum
can be estimated from the quantum optics squeezing condition for given transverse
momentum and (equivalent) energy eigenvalues, j, of two electromagnetic ZPF field
modes, such that this condition is subject to j → 0, and it is defined as (Reference 21):
j ≡ 4πc² / λg₀ · (r/R₀)² · M₀/M = 8πr_s / λ (6)
where λ is the ZPF mode wavelength, r is the radial distance from the center of the
astronomical body in question, R₀ is the radius of the Earth (6.378 × 10⁶ m), M₀ is the
mass of the Earth (5.972 × 10²⁴ kg), M is the mass of the astronomical body, and r_s is
the Schwarzschild radius of the astronomical body.⁸ Note that r_s is only a convenient
radial distance parameter for any object under examination and so there is no black
hole collapse involved in this analysis. Any radial distance from the body in question
can be chosen to perform this analysis, but using r_s makes the equation simpler in
form. Also note that Equation (6) contains an extra factor of two (compared to the j
derived in Reference 21) in order to account for the photon spin. The squeezing
condition plus Equation (6) simply states that substantial gravitational squeezing of the
vacuum occurs for those ZPF field modes with λ ≥ 8πr_s of the mass in question (whose
⁸ r_s = 2GM/c². According to general relativity theory, this is the critical radius at which a spherically symmetric
massive body becomes a black hole, i.e., at which light is unable to escape from the body's surface.
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gravitational field is squeezing the vacuum). The corresponding local vacuum state
energy density is: ρE-gsvac = −2π²ηc/λ⁴.
The general result of the gravitational squeezing effect is that as the gravitational field
strength increases, the negative energy zone (surrounding the body) also increases in
strength. Table 1 shows when gravitational squeezing becomes important for sample
bodies and their associated ρE-gsvac. The table shows that in the case of the Earth,
Jupiter and the Sun, the squeezing effect is extremely feeble because only ZPF mode
wavelengths above 0.2 m to 78 km are affected, each having very minute ρE-gsvac. For a
solar mass black hole (radius of 2.95 km), the effect is still feeble because only ZPF
mode wavelengths above 78 km are affected. But note that Planck mass bodies will
have an enormously strong negative energy zone surrounding them because all ZPF
mode wavelengths above 8.50 × 10⁻³⁴ m will be squeezed, in other words, all
wavelengths of interest for vacuum fluctuations. Protons will have the strongest
negative energy zone in comparison because the squeezing effect includes all ZPF mode
wavelengths above 6.50 × 10⁻⁵³ m. Furthermore, a body smaller than a nuclear
diameter (≈ 10⁻¹⁶ m) and containing the mass of a mountain (≈ 10¹¹ kg) has a fairly
strong negative energy zone because all ZPF mode wavelengths above 10⁻¹⁵ m will be
squeezed. In each of these cases, the magnitude of the corresponding ρE-gsvac is very
large.
However, the estimates for the wavelengths in Table 1 might be too small. Ford
(private communication, 2007) argues that Reference 21 is in error because spacetime
is flat on scales smaller than the local radius of curvature, which is defined by the
inverse square root of the typical Riemann curvature tensor component in a local
orthonormal frame, or λc ≈ (r³c²/GM)¹/². According to Ford, only ZPF modes with λ ≥ λc
will be squeezed by the gravitational field. This leads to a different local vacuum state
energy density (for r >> r_s) (Reference 15):
ρE-gsvac = −2π²hc / λ⁴
≈ −2π²hc / 1_c⁴ (7)
≈ −2π²hG²M² / c³r⁶ (J/m³)
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Table 1. Substantial Gravitational Squeezing Occurs for Vacuum ZPF When λ ≥ 8πr_s
Mass of body (kg) | r_s (m) | λ (m) | ρE-gsvac (J/m³)
Sun = 2.00 × 10³⁰ | 2.95 × 10³ | ≥ 78.0 × 10³ | −1.69 × 10⁴⁴
Jupiter = 1.90 × 10²⁷ | 2.82 | ≥ 74 | −2.08 × 10⁻³²
Earth = 5.98 × 10²⁴ | 8.87 × 10³ | ≥ 0.23 | −2.23 × 10²²
Typical mountain ≈ 10¹¹ | ≈ 10⁻¹⁶ | ≥ 10⁻¹⁵ | −6.25 × 10³⁵
Planck mass = 2.18 × 10⁸ | 3.23 × 10³⁵ | ≥ 8.50 × 10³⁴ | −1.20 × 10¹⁰⁸
Proton = 1.67 × 10⁻²⁷ | 2.48 × 10⁻⁵⁴ | ≥ 6.50 × 10⁻⁵³ | −3.50 × 10¹⁸⁴
For example, near the surface of the Earth (r ≈ R₀, M = M₀), λc ≈ 2.42 × 10¹¹ m and
hence, Equation (7) gives ρE-gsvac ≈ −1.82 × 10⁷⁰ J/m³. Compare these values with λ ≥
0.23 m and ρE-gsvac ≈ −2.23 × 10⁻²² J/m³ in Table 1. The resolution of this disagreement
remains an open question.
One is presently unaware of any way to artificially generate gravitational squeezing of
the vacuum in the laboratory. This will be left for future investigation. However, it is
predicted to occur in the vicinity of astronomical matter. Naturally occurring traversable
wormholes in the vicinity of astronomical matter would therefore become possible.
4. Vacuum Field Stress: Negative Energy from the Casimir Effect
The Casimir effect is by far the easiest
and most well known way to generate
negative energy in the lab. The Casimir
effect that is familiar to most people is
the force that is associated with the
electromagnetic quantum vacuum
(Reference 51). This is an attractive
force that must exist between any two
neutral (uncharged), parallel, flat,
conducting surfaces (e.g., metallic
plates) in a vacuum. This force has been
well measured and it can be attributed
to a minute imbalance in the vacuum
electromagnetic zero-point energy
density inside the cavity between the
conducting surfaces versus the vacuum
electromagnetic zero-point energy
density in the free-space region outside
of the cavity (Reference 52-54). See
Figure 12 for an illustration of this
effect.
[FIGURE: Diagram showing Casimir plates on left with arrows pointing inward, and Vacuum fluctuations on right with arrows]
Figure 12. Schematic of the Casimir Effect
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It turns out that there are many different types of Casimir effects found in quantum
field theory (Reference 22-24, 28, 55). For example, if one introduces a single infinite
plane conductor into the Minkowski (flat spacetime) vacuum by bringing it adiabatically
from infinity so that whatever quantum fields are present suffer no excitation but
remain in their ground states, then the vacuum (electromagnetic) stresses induced by
the presence of the infinite plane conductor produces a Casimir effect. This result holds
equally well when two parallel plane conductors (with separation distance d) are
present, which gives rise to the familiar Casimir effect inside a cavity. Note that in both
cases, the spacetime manifold is made incomplete by the introduction of the plane
conductor boundary condition(s). The vacuum region put under stress by the presence
of the plane conductor(s) is called the Casimir vacuum. The generic expression for the
energy density of the Casimir effect is ρCE = −A(ηc)d⁻⁴, where A = ζ(D)/8π² in spacetimes
of arbitrary dimension D (Reference 22-24). The appearance of the zeta-function ζ(D)
is characteristic of expressions for vacuum stress-energy tensors, T^μν_vac. In our familiar
four-dimensional spacetime (D = 4), A = π²/720. To calculate T^μν_vac for a given quantum
field is to calculate its associated Casimir effect.
Analogs of the Casimir effect also exist for fields other than the electromagnetic field.
When considering the vacuum state of other fields, one must consider boundary
conditions that are analogous to the perfect-conductor boundary conditions for the
electromagnetic field at the surfaces of the plates (Reference 22-24, 28). Other fields
are not electromagnetic in nature, that is to say they are non-Maxwellian, and so the
perfect-conductor boundary conditions do not apply to them. It turns out that complete
manifolds exhibit what is called the topological Casimir effect for any non-Maxwellian
fields. In order to define boundary conditions for other fields the conductor boundary
conditions are replaced and Minkowski spacetime by a manifold of the form ℜ × Σ (i.e.,
a product space), where ℜ is the real line defining the time dimension for this particular
product space and Σ is a flat three-dimensional manifold having any one of the
following topologies: ℜ² × S¹, ℜ × T², T³, ℜ × K², etc., ℜ being the real line that defines
any linear space dimension (e.g., ℜ = line, ℜ² = two-dimensional plane, etc.), T^n being
the n-torus, K² the two-dimensional Klein bottle, S¹ the circle, etc.
The case Σ = ℜ² × S¹ has the closest resemblance to the electromagnetic Casimir effect,
the difference being that instead of imposing conductor boundary conditions, one
imposes periodic boundary conditions on some of the space coordinates in the three-
dimensional manifold. When imposing this topological constraint on the field theoretic
calculation of the topological Casimir effect (for linear massless fields), one finds that
the generic expression for the energy density is also ρCE = −A(ηc)d⁻⁴, where
A = ±d_f(π²/90), d_f is the number of degrees of freedom (e.g., helicity states) per spatial
point, the plus sign holds for boson fields (giving a negative energy density) and the
negative sign for fermion fields (giving a positive energy density).
If one were to admit spin structure in the manifolds described above and the field is
spinorial, then there is another important subtlety that must be taken into account
when evaluating T^μν_vac. However, this introduces an additional complexity involving the
relationship between the spin structure and the global structure (i.e., the configuration
space or fibre bundle) of the field in question whereby the topology not only of the base
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manifold, but of the fibre bundle itself has an effect on T^μν_vac. In addition to this, there
are (compactified) extra-space dimensional quantum field (i.e., D-Brane or "brane
world") analogs of the Casimir effect yet to be explored. But a detailed consideration of
these for producing traversable wormholes is beyond the scope of this report and will
be left for future investigation.
As a final note, the methods used to obtain the electromagnetic T^μν_vac between parallel
plane conductors can also be used when the conductors are not parallel but are joined
together along a line of intersection. If the conductors have curved surfaces instead,
then one obtains results that are similar to the case of intersecting conductors. These
geometries have also been evaluated for the case of dielectric media. These particular
cases will not be considered further since there are technical subtleties involved that
complicate the calculations and application of the different approaches. This topic will
also be left for future investigation.
5. Dynamical Casimir Effect: Moving Mirrors
Negative energy can be created by a single moving reflecting (conducting) surface
(a.k.a. a moving mirror). A mirror moving with increasing acceleration generates a flux
of negative energy that emanates from its surface and flows out into the space ahead
of the mirror (Reference 25, 56). This is essentially the simple case of an infinite plane
conductor undergoing acceleration perpendicular to its surface. If the acceleration
varies with time, the conductor will generally emit or absorb photons (i.e., exchange
energy with the vacuum), even though it is neutral. This is an example of the well-
known quantum phenomenon of parametric excitation. The parameters of the
electromagnetic field oscillators (e.g., their frequency distribution function) change with
time owing to the acceleration of the mirror (Reference 57). However, this effect is
known to be exceedingly small, and it is not the most effective way to produce negative
energy. This scheme will not be considered any further.
6. Casimir Effect: Negative Energy for Traversable Wormholes
The electromagnetic Casimir effect can be used in principle to create a traversable
wormhole. The energy density ρCE = −(π²hc/720)d⁻⁴ within a Casimir cavity is negative
and manifests itself by producing a force of attraction between the cavity walls. But
cavity dimensions must be made exceedingly small in order to generate a significant
amount of negative energy. In order to use the Casimir effect to generate a spherically
symmetric traversable wormhole throat of radius r_throat, there is need to design a cavity
made of perfectly conducting spherically concentric thin plates with a plate separation d
of (Reference 2):
d = (π³/30)^(1/4) (r_throat √(hG/c³))^(1/2)
= (4.05 × 10⁻¹⁸) √r_throat (m) (8)
To counteract the collapse of the cavity due to the Casimir Force acting between the
plates, the plates will have equal electric charges placed upon them to establish
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adequate Coulomb repulsion.⁹ Equation (8) shows that a 1 km radius throat will require
a cavity plate separation of 1.28 × 10⁻¹⁶ m (smaller than a nuclear diameter), which
gives ρEC = −1.62 × 10³⁶ J/m³ for this configuration. In contrast, a wormhole with a
throat radius of 1 AU will require a plate separation of 1.57 × 10⁻¹² m (or 35% smaller
than the electron's Compton wavelength), which results in an energy density of −7.14 ×
10¹⁹ J/m³.¹⁰ There is no technology known today that can engineer a cavity with such
minuscule plate separations. In addition, such minuscule plate separations are
unrealistic because the Casimir effect switches over to the non-retarded field behavior
(~ d⁻³) of van der Waals forces when plate separations go below the wavelength (≈ 10
nm) where they are no longer perfectly conducting (Reference 58). This scheme will not
be considered any further. However, future work will be necessary to elucidate whether
the various quantum field analogs of the Casimir effect can provide a more reasonable
technical solution to this problem.
IV. Constructing a Traversable Wormhole is not Easy
A. NEGATIVE ENERGY REQUIREMENTS AND ENERGY CONDITION
VIOLATIONS
One knows how to make small quantities of negative energy in the lab. But one does
not know if it is possible to make large quantities of negative energy. It was pointed out
in Section III that one, some, or all of the classical energy conditions must be violated
in order to build a traversable wormhole. And it was also cautioned that this was not a
showstopper because the energy conditions have all been violated by nature or by lab
experiment prior to their formulation. However, the reader should be forewarned that
there are a number of published claims that the energy condition violations can be
avoided. These claims are just semantic games whereby investigators universally
invoke the following scenario: divide the total stress-energy into weird matter plus
normal matter, push all the energy condition violation into the weird matter so that
the normal matter does not violate the energy conditions. Given that the energy
conditions are not absolute, such rearranging approaches are not necessary.
Traversable wormhole throats violate the NEC (or ANEC). So how big a violation is
required? The answer is that there is only need to calculate the amount of negative
energy that will be needed to generate and hold open a wormhole throat. A simple
formula for short-throat wormholes using the thin shell formalism gives this quantity in
terms of the equivalent mass (note: the energy density derived from the general
relativistic field equation is too complex to use for this mass comparison) (Reference
3):
⁹ In a detailed analysis the electrostatic energy required to support the Coulomb repulsion between the plates
would be considered separately.
¹⁰ Mean Earth-Sun distance, 1 AU = 1.50 × 10¹¹ m.
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M_wh = −l_throat c² / G
= −(1.35 × 10²⁷ kg) l_throat / 1 meter (9)
= −(0.71 M_J) l_throat / 1 meter
where M_wh is the (equivalent) mass required to build the wormhole, λ_throat is a suitable
measure of the linear dimension (width or diameter) of the throat, and M_J is the mass
of the planet Jupiter. One can also obtain the required energy, E_wh, by multiplying both
sides of Equation (9) by c². Equation (9) shows that a mass of −0.71 M_J will be required
to build a wormhole 1-m in size. As the wormhole size increases, the mass requirement
grows negative-large. Table 2 presents a tabulation of the required negative
(equivalent) mass as a function of sample wormhole throat sizes. After being alarmed
by the magnitude of the results, one should note that M_wh is not the total mass of the
wormhole as seen by remote observers. The non-linearity of the general relativistic field
equation dictates that the total mass is zero (actually, the total net mass being positive,
negative or zero in the Newtonian approximation depending on the details of the
negative energy configuration constituting the wormhole system). Finally, Visser et al.
(Reference 59) demonstrated the existence of spacetime geometries containing
traversable wormholes that are supported by arbitrarily small quantities of negative
energy, and this was proved to be a general result. The next section will expand on this
further.
Table 2. Negative Equivalent Mass Required for
Traversable Wormhole
λ_throat (m) | M_wh
1000 | −709.9 M_J
100 | −71 M_J
10 | −7.1 M_J
1 | −0.71 M_J
0.1 | −22.6 M_⊕
0.01 | −2.3 M_⊕
M_J = 1.90 × 10²⁷ kg, M₀ = 5.98 × 10²⁴ kg
B. PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS ON NEGATIVE ENERGY
The Quantum Inequalities (QI) conjecture is an extension of the Heisenberg Uncertainty
Principle to curved spacetimes. Much research has been conducted around this one
topic alone. The literature is too numerous to cite here but the reader should consult
(Reference 10) and (Reference 46) for detailed information. The QI conjecture relates
(via model dependent time integrals of the energy density along geodesics) the energy
density of a free quantum field and the time during which this energy density is
observed. This conjecture was devised as an attempt to quantify the amount of
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negative energy or energy condition violations required to build a traversable wormhole
spacetime. Investigators have invoked the QI to rule out many of the macroscopic
wormhole spacetimes. When generating negative energy the QI postulate that: a) the
longer the pulse of negative energy lasts, the weaker it must be; b) a pulse of positive
energy must follow and the magnitude of the positive pulse must exceed that of the
initial negative pulse; and c) the longer the time interval between the two pulses, the
larger the positive pulse must be. This actually sounds quite reasonable on energy
conservation grounds until one discovers that the Casimir effect and its non-Maxwellian
quantum field analogs violate all three conditions. There are also a number of squeezed
vacuum sources and Dirac field states that manifestly violate all three conditions.
Cosmological inflation, cosmological particle production, classical scalar fields, the
conformal anomaly, and gravitational vacuum polarization are among the many other
examples that also violate the QI. Visser (Reference 60) also points out that
observational data indicate that large amounts of "exotic matter" are required to exist
in the universe in order to account for the observed cosmological evolution parameters.
The QI have also not been verified by laboratory experiments. The assumptions used to
derive the QI and the efficacy of their derivation for various cases has been called into
question by numerous investigators. Krasnikov (Reference 61) constructed an explicit
counterexample for generalized FTL spacetimes showing that the relevant QI breaks
down even in the simplest FTL cases. And he also addressed Fewster's (Reference 62)
technical arguments on this issue. It is important to point out that the QIs have been
mainly proven for free massless scalar fields in flat two-dimensional Minkowski
spacetime, so there remains the unanswered questions of extending the QI into a four-
dimensional curved spacetime model (with or without boundaries) and how much
negative energy density can arise for interacting fields.
It turns out that Visser and coworkers (Reference 59, 63, 64) developed a superior way
to properly quantify the amount of negative energy or energy condition violations
required to build a traversable wormhole spacetime. They propose a quantifier in terms
of a spatial volume integral, which amounts to calculating the following definite
integrals (Reference 59, 63, 64):
∫ρ_Rk dV ≤ 0; ∫(ρ_Rk + p_i) dV ≤ 0 (10)
with an appropriate choice of the integration measure dV (= 4πr²dr or g^(1/2)drdθdφ, where
g ≡ det(g_μν) is the matrix determinant of g_μν). The amount of energy condition violation
is defined as the extent to which Equation (10) can become negative. The value of
Equation (10) provides information about the total amount of energy condition violating
matter that must exist for any given FTL spacetime under study (e.g., warp drives and
traversable wormholes). It was further shown that Equation (10) can be adjusted to
become vanishingly small by appropriate choice of parameters; therefore, examples
can be constructed whereby the energy condition violation can be made arbitrarily
small. But the violation cannot be made to vanish entirely.
Equation (10) also gives the result that traversable wormholes require arbitrarily small
amounts of negative energy to build (whereby Equation (9) serves only as a gross
upper limit) such that within a wormhole spacetime (Reference 59):
ρ_μ = 0; ∫p_r dV → 0 (11)
c
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where p_r is the outward radial pressure required to hold a wormhole throat open. The
Gauss-Bonnet Theorem (discussed in Section II-A) predicted this result beforehand.
Equation (11) is a result that is also due to the intrinsic nonlinearity of the general
relativistic field equation. This nonlinearity also impacts the coupling of a finite
spaceship mass with each side of a wormhole's throat (or the mouth on each side of the
throat) leading to a specialized mass conservation law for the combined system of
spacecraft and wormhole: when finite mass spaceships traverse a wormhole they alter
the (equivalent) mass of the wormhole mouths they pass through (Reference 3). The
entrance mouth absorbing the spacecraft gains (equivalent) mass while the exit mouth
emitting it loses (equivalent) mass.¹¹ (This mass coupling and conservation law takes
into account the possibility that spaceships traversing the wormhole may lose or gain
some momentum and kinetic energy in the process, and it is assumed that the two
mouths are sufficiently far apart that their mutual gravitational interaction is
negligible.) This unusual result suggests, but does not prove, the possibility of a
fundamental limit on the total mass that can traverse a wormhole. The coupled mass
conservation law shows that for a sufficiently large net transfer of mass the final
(equivalent) mass of the exit mouth becomes negative. This is actually a beneficial
result because ANEC violations are required just to hold the wormhole throat open in
the first place. If it appears that a runaway reaction might occur, then it would be
prudent for wormhole engineers to simply "turn off" the wormhole for a brief moment
and then "turn it back on" (i.e., "reset" the wormhole) to restart space transportation
operations.
It is on the basis of the foregoing discussion that traversable wormholes appear to be
the most viable form of FTL transport. However, one still does not know how to
construct a traversable wormhole because general relativity theory only provides a
recipe for the essential geometric and material ingredients required to open and
maintain one, but not the required assembly instructions. Will one need to pull a
traversable wormhole out of the quantum spacetime foam and enlarge it to
macroscopic scale or will there be need to use extremely large spacetime curvatures to
"punch a hole" through space? Or are there construction techniques yet to be
identified? The author is convinced that the answer can only be found through empirical
studies designed to decide whether the present general relativistic recipe is enough to
work with or an additional construction mechanism will be required.
On physical grounds Equation (10) appears to be the correct negative energy/energy
condition violation quantifier. However, further work is needed to establish whether
Equation (10) is the correct quantifier to use overall and whether all (averaged) energy
condition theorems can be extended to include it.
On another note, Borde et al. (Reference 65) have recast the QI conjecture into a new
program which seeks to study the spatial distributions of negative energy density in
quantum field theory. Their study models free massless scalar fields in flat
two-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. Several explicit examples of spacetime averaged
QI were studied to allow or rule out some particular model (spatial) distributions of
negative energy. Their analysis showed that some geometric configurations of negative
energy can either be ruled out or else constrained by the QI restrictions placed upon
¹¹ Similar coupling and conservation results hold for the case of electrically charged matter that traverse a (charged
or uncharged) wormhole.
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the allowable spatial distributions of negative energy. And there were found to be
allowable negative energy distributions in which observers would never encounter the
accompanying positive energy distribution so long as the QI restrictions and
corresponding energy conditions are violated. The extent to which the results of Borde
et al.'s analysis can be generalized to a four-dimensional curved spacetime (with or
without boundaries) and interacting fields remain unsolved.
C. OBSERVING NEGATIVE ENERGY IN THE LAB
Negative energy should be observable in lab experiments. The presence of naturally
occurring negative energy regions in space is predicted to produce a unique signature
corresponding to lensing, chromaticity and intensity effects in micro- and macro-lensing
events on galactic and extragalactic/cosmological scales (Reference 66-71). It has been
shown that these effects provide a specific signature that allows for discrimination
between ordinary (positive energy) and negative energy lenses via the spectral analysis
of astronomical lensing events. Theoretical modeling of negative energy lensing effects
has led to intense astronomical searches for naturally occurring traversable wormholes
in the universe. Computer model simulations and comparison of their results with
recent satellite observations of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) has shown that putative
negative energy (i.e., traversable wormhole) lensing events very closely resemble the
main features of some GRBs. Other research has found that current observational data
suggests that large amounts of naturally occurring "exotic matter" must have existed
sometime between the epoch of galaxy formation and the present in order to (properly)
quantitatively account for the "age-of-the-oldest-stars-in-the-galactic-halo" problem
and the cosmological evolution parameters (Reference 60).
When background light rays strike a negative energy lensing region, they are swept out
of the central region thus creating an umbra region of zero intensity. At the edges of
the umbra the rays accumulate and create a rainbow-like caustic with enhanced light
intensity. The lensing of a negative energy region is not analogous to a diverging lens
because in certain circumstances it can produce more light enhancement than does the
lensing of an equivalent positive energy region. Real background sources in lensing
events can have non-uniform brightness distributions on their surfaces and a
dependency of their emission with the observing frequency. These complications can
result in chromaticity effects, i.e., in spectral changes induced by differential lensing
during the event. The quantification of such effects is quite lengthy, somewhat model
dependent, and with recent application only to astronomical lensing events. Suffice it to
say that future work is necessary to scale down the predicted lensing parameters and
characterize their effects for lab experiments in which the negative energy will not be of
astronomical magnitude. Present ultrahigh-speed optics and optical cavities, lasers,
photonic crystal (and related switching) technology, sensitive nano-sensor technology,
and other techniques are very likely capable of detecting the very small magnitude
lensing effects expected in lab experiments.
A non-optical scheme for detecting negative energy in experiments was recently
reported by Davies and Ottewill (Reference 72) who studied the response of switched
particle detectors to static negative energy densities and negative energy fluxes. Their
model is based on a free (massless) scalar field in flat four-dimensional Minkowski
spacetime and utilized a simple generalization of the standard monopole detector,
which is switched on and off to concentrate the measurements on periods of isolated
negative energy density (or negative energy flux). The detector model includes an
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explicit switching factor whereby five different switching functions (based on data
windowing theory) are defined and evaluated. In order to isolate the effects of negative
energy a comparison is made for the response of a detector switched on and off during
a period of negative energy density (or negative energy flux) and that switched on and
off in the vacuum. The results shed light on the response of matter (detectors) to
pulses of negative energy of finite duration, and they showed that negative energy
should have the effect of enhancing deexcitation (i.e., induce cooling) of the detector.
This is the opposite of our experience with detectors that undergo excitation when
encountering "normal" matter or energy, and isolated detectors placed in a vacuum
naturally cool due to the usual thermodynamic reasons. But Davies and Ottewill point
out that the enhanced cooling effect they discovered cannot be used to draw a
thermodynamic conclusion because their modeling was restricted to first order in
perturbation theory. It is not possible at first order to determine whether the enhanced
cooling effects are due to the small violation of energy conservation expected in any
process in which a general quantum state collapses to an energy eigenstate, or whether
they predict a systematic reduction in the energy of the detector which has serious
thermodynamic implications. However, Davies and Ottewill point out that their results
are model dependent and they found for their standard monopole detector model that
there is not always a simple relationship between the strength of the negative energy
density/flux and the behavior of the detector. Further research will be necessary to
resolve these issues.
V. Conclusion: The Way Forward
More than 40 years elapsed between the late 1890s when the Curies first identified
radioactive substances in their laboratory and when a neutron-catalyzed fission chain
reaction – the world's first nuclear reactor – was demonstrated at the University of
Chicago in 1939 by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard. Six more years would pass before the
world's first nuclear bomb was successfully tested in New Mexico. The progress of
science and technology is rapid, but highly dependent on adequate and sustained focus,
effort, and support. On this basis, it is possible that a traversable wormhole can be
demonstrated in the laboratory as long as there is a focused, sustained level of long-
term research support.
A game changer may appear that could dramatically accelerate or alter the direction of
an experimental traversable wormhole program. Such a game changer could entail new
physics that is predicted by a complete, comprehensive quantum gravity theory, or a
quantum gravity theory that is a subset of a larger unified field theory (i.e., a finalized
quantum superstring theory, or some other theory that replaces it), or a completely
new theory for the quantum vacuum and its related spacetime physics (e.g.,
"emergent" spacetime/gravity theories (Reference 73, 74)). The new field of
"emergent" spacetime/gravity suggests that gravitation is not a fundamental force of
nature because, among many other considerations, of its extreme weakness relative to
the other forces of nature. Instead, spacetime and gravitation are seen as emergent
low-energy phenomenon, which arises from the collective action of much higher-energy
phenomenon occurring in the quantum vacuum where Lorentz invariance and energy
conservation may be violated in the trans-Planckian regime. One now knows empirically
that the "emergent" low-energy vacuum within which one exists is in fact a rich
quantum ether comprised of zero-point fluctuation fields that make it behave like a
nonlinear optical medium endowed with paramagnetic, dichroic, birefringent, condensed
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matter, and many other fascinating properties (Reference 22-24, 26, 73-76).
Therefore, if the emergent spacetime/gravity approach turns out to be correct, then
there will likely be a direct consequence to the physics of traversable wormholes that
could dramatically alter the mechanism by which they are created and/or mitigate the
requirement for negative energy.
Until such new approaches are established and testable predictions published by their
proponents, one cannot speculate on how the physics of traversable wormholes will be
affected. Therefore, it is beneficial to stick to the outcome of the present study in terms
of quantum field theory and general relativity theory, and outline what needs to be
accomplished going forward in order to demonstrate a traversable wormhole in the lab.
Going forward toward the demonstration of a traversable wormhole will require the
following:
• Generating Negative Energy in the Lab: Our assessment concludes that we already
make small amounts of negative energy in the lab, but we do not yet know if we can
access larger amounts for extended periods of time over extended spatial
distributions for the purpose of engineering a traversable wormhole. In this regard
we propose the following options for further exploration.
• Squeezed quantum vacuum generators: A dedicated research program to develop
the two negative energy generator concepts described in Section III-B-2 will need to
be established in order to evolve state-of-the-art quantum optics technology
towards producing higher magnitudes of negative energy as well as special
techniques required to separate out any positive energy fluxes that accompany the
negative energy fluxes. Specifically, the Rabeau et al. (Reference 48, 49) and Ries
et al. (Reference 50) experimental programs should be followed as a template
toward this goal. Quantum optics technology via high power fiber lasers, resonators,
amplifier stages, beam conditioning stages, etc., are rapidly advancing. So research
should be conducted in parallel to invent additional ways to produce negative energy
via innovative quantum optics.
• Casimir effect: Even though the standard electromagnetic Casimir effect is feeble,
and thus not likely to contribute to a traversable wormhole engineering program,
there are still a number of other electromagnetic and non-electromagnetic Casimir
effects described in Section III-B-4 that require further study. These other Casimir
effects have not been explored with an eye toward testing them in the lab, and so
there could be important new information yet to be uncovered.
• Moving Mirrors (a.k.a. the dynamical Casimir effect): Even though this concept was
identified (Section III-B-5) as being too feeble to produce any useful flux of negative
energy, the observable effects due to the change in the boundary conditions (e.g.,
moving mirrors/cavity walls) of quantum fields provide crucial information on the
quantum vacuum at the macroscopic level. Theoretical and laboratory efforts are
underway to understand the dissipative effects of vacuum fluctuations (Reference
77-78). This dissipation mechanism should induce irradiation of photons, a
phenomenon also known as the dynamical Casimir effect. This can be understood
both as the creation of particles under non-adiabatic changes in the boundary
conditions of quantum fields, or as classical parametric amplification with the zero-
point energy of a vacuum field mode as an input state. More recent developments
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include models for the super-radiant amplification of photons with particular
emphasis on its dynamics and the optimization of the involved parameters.
Experimental concepts being pursued will try to reveal directly the presence of a
non-empty vacuum by using a specifically designed device to amplify the virtual
vacuum photons and produce real electromagnetic radiation via the parametric
amplification of the vacuum fluctuations in an electromagnetic cavity. The 'amplifier'
is a boundary undergoing an oscillation, and hence radiates energy due to the
dissipative action against the vacuum photons. This line of investigation could serve
as a very useful probe to explore the possibility of generating large fluxes of
negative energy. It may be expected that a laboratory demonstration of the
dynamical Casimir effect will occur before 2012.
• Dirac field states: As described in Section III-A, this involves either the
superposition of two single particle electron states or the superposition of two multi-
electron-positron states (Reference 29, 30). This is still a nascent topic of study in
quantum field theory. However, mankind already possesses a great deal of
technology that is dedicated to the manipulation and storage of electrons and
positrons via solid state/condensed matter devices and particle accelerators. This
research topic should be supported in order to establish how it could contribute to
an experimental traversable wormhole program.
• Quantum coherence effects: Other types of quantum coherence effects not already
identified or invented should be theoretically developed and explored for the
possibility of finding new free-field or interacting field configurations that produce a
significant magnitude of negative energy which could be produced by technological
means.
• Detecting Negative Energy in the Lab: In Section IV-C this paper identified
proposals for observing negative energy in outer space and in the laboratory, but
further work is needed to downscale astronomical techniques for use at the lab scale,
and we need to firm up our understanding of how lab detectors will respond to
negative energy in situ. A first step in the latter direction was recently proposed by
Marecki (Reference 79) who generalized the analysis of the output of balanced
homodyne detectors (BHDs). The most important feature of these devices is their
ability to quantify the vacuum fluctuations of the electric field because the
output of BHDs provides information on the one- and two-point functions of
arbitrary states of quantum fields. Marecki computed the two-point function and the
associated spectral density for the ground state of the quantum electric field in
Casimir geometries, and predicts a position- and frequency-dependent pattern of
BHD responses if a device of this type is placed inside a Casimir cavity. The
proposed device allows for the direct detection of quantum vacuum fluctuations and
provides a spatial mapping of the negative energy contained inside the cavity. This
offers a potential new characterization of ground states in Casimir geometries, which
would provide an understanding of the negative energy densities present in some
regions in these geometries.
• Trapping and Storing Negative Energy: Ford and Roman (Reference 10) have only
superficially addressed this topic, and there is very little technical literature that
addresses it fully. A theoretical program to develop the physics and technology of
trapping and storing negative energy will need to be supported, and such a program
should be guided by the use of laboratory detectors such as the one proposed in the
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previous section. However, it is the opinion of the author that free-space negative
energy sources appear to be a more desirable option for building traversable
wormholes than stored negative energy.
• Constructing Traversable Wormholes in the Lab: Einstein's General Theory of
Relativity does not provide instructions on how to construct a traversable wormhole
in space or inside a laboratory vacuum vessel. The Einstein general relativistic field
equation only provides a prescription for designing a special, localized spacetime
geometry and calculating the physical characteristics of a source of matter that is
required to induce it. If one "zaps" a region of empty space with a beam of negative
energy, will a traversable wormhole appear? One doesn't know. Maybe one has to
poke a hole in space with an intense beam of negative energy, or maybe we have to
use the negative energy to inflate a quantum spacetime fluctuation (allegedly in the
form of a "geometric foam"). Theoretical studies need to be implemented to address
this question and the author believes that empirical studies will be necessary to find
the answer once we develop an intense source of negative energy.
VI. References
[1] Morris, M. S., and Thorne, K. S., "Wormholes in spacetime and their use for
interstellar travel: A tool for teaching general relativity," American Journal of Physics,
Vol. 56, 1988, pp. 395-412.
[2] Morris, M. S., Thorne, K. S., and Yurtsever, U., "Wormholes, time machines, and
the weak energy conditions," Physical Review Letters, Vol. 61, 1988, pp. 1446-1449.
[3] Visser, M., Lorentzian Wormholes: From Einstein to Hawking, AIP Press, New York,
1995.
[4] Hochberg, D., and Visser, M., "Geometric Structure of the Generic Static
Traversable Wormhole Throat," Physical Review D, Vol. 56, 1997, pp. 4745-4755.
[5] Ida, D., and Hayward, S. A., "How much negative energy does a wormhole need?,"
Physics Letters A, Vol. 260, 1999, pp. 175-181.
[6] Visser, M., "Traversable wormholes: Some simple examples," Physical Review D,
Vol. 39, 1989, pp. 3182-3184.
[7] Misner, C. W., Thorne, K. S., and Wheeler, J. A., Gravitation, W. H. Freeman & Co.,
New York, 1973, pp. 551-556.
[8] Davis, E. W., "Teleportation Physics Study," Air Force Research Laboratory, Final
Report AFRL-PR-ED-TR-2003-0034, Air Force Materiel Command, Edwards AFB, CA,
2004, pp. 3-11.
[9] Kaku, M., Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time-
Warps, and the 10th Dimension, Anchor Books Doubleday, New York, 1995.
[10] Ford, L. H., and Roman, T. A., "Negative Energy, Wormholes and Warp Drive,"
Scientific American, Vol. 13, 2003, pp. 84-91.
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[11] Hawking, S. W., and Ellis, G. F. R., The Large-Scale Structure of Space-Time,
Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1973, pp. 88-91, 95-96.
[12] Epstein, H., Glaser, V., and Jaffe, A., "Nonpositivity of the Energy Density in
Quantized Field Theories," Nuovo Cimento, Vol. 36, 1965, pp. 1016-1022.
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