In A First, Fiction Turns Into Reality As Scientists Create 'Baby' Wormhole
Scientists claimed to have transmitted a message between two small black holes through quantum computers without tearing into space and time.
There are theories that science has derived but has not been able to prove. Yet, these theories have found an effective place in science fiction movies crossing the threshold of imagination and suggesting what mysteries our universe is hiding within itself. In such a breakthrough development, scientists have been able to create a wormhole. Anyone who has seen films like 'Interstellar' and 'Star Trek' can relate to this term.
What Is A Wormhole?
A wormhole is a theoretical passage between space and time that can allow travelling long distances in a short time.
It is popularly shown as ‘portals’ in films that let the characters traverse unimaginable distances through space-time with ease. Well, it is not as simple as it looks in the movies for sure.
The term ‘wormhole’ was first coined by physicist John Wheeler. The concept of this ‘space portal’ was calculated by Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen and is based on their predictions in the 'Theory of Relativity'.
It is also known as Einstein-Rosen Bridge, as it, theoretically, builds a bridge between two different regions in the universe by rupturing space and time.
Scientists Create 'Baby' Wormhole
Like many other spectacular theories of space science, wormholes have been a concept on paper as not even one has been found yet.
Now, researchers have claimed to create a 'baby' wormhole and used it to send messages using quantum computers. According to The Guardian, researchers said that they simulated two minuscule black holes in a quantum computer and transmitted a message between them through what amounted to a tunnel in space-time.
In the study published in the journal Nature, the scientists claimed that they were possibly able to create a wormhole without rupturing space and time.
"This is important because what we have here in its construct and structure is a baby wormhole," said Maria Spiropulu, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology and co-author of the research, reported The New York Times.
She added, “And we hope that we can make adult wormholes and toddler wormholes step-by-step.”
Co-author Joseph Lykken of Fermilab, America’s particle physics and accelerator laboratory, said, "It looks like a duck, it walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck. So that’s what we can say at this point – that we have something that in terms of the properties we look at, it looks like a wormhole."
In the report published in the journal Nature, the consortium said "This work is a successful attempt at observing traversable wormhole dynamics in an experimental setting."
Talking about the development in detail, lead author Maria Spiropulu said that scientists are a long way from being able to send people or other living beings through such a portal, reported Reuters.
She said, "Experimentally, for me, I will tell you that it's very, very far away. People come to me and they ask me, 'Can you put your dog in the wormhole?' So, no...That's a huge leap."
The real wormhole, as hypothetically developed by Einstein and Rosen, needs an exotic matter for stability. It is to be noted that a wormhole brings several dangers with it including sudden collapse and high radiation.
This exotic matter is often misunderstood as dark matter or antimatter, but it is different from them.
According to Space.com, exotic matter contains a negative energy density and a large negative pressure and such matter has only been seen in the behavior of certain vacuum states as part of quantum field theory.
Criticism On The Finding
Experts have reacted to the finding, giving their input on what this could exactly mean.
Scientists who were not part of the study have mentioned that it was important to note that a physical wormhole had not actually been created, which the general public might think is the case.
"The most important thing I'd want New York Times readers to understand is this, if this experiment has brought a wormhole into actual physical existence, then a strong case could be made that you, too, bring a wormhole into actual physical existence every time you sketch one with pen and paper," said Scott Aaronson, a quantum computing expert at the University of Texas in Austin, quoted The New York Times.
MIT physicist Daniel Harlow said that the outcome does not tell the real world anything new that we did not already know.
"I’d say that this doesn’t teach us anything about quantum gravity that we didn’t already know. "On the other hand, I think it is exciting as a technical achievement because if we can’t even do this (and until now we couldn’t), then simulating more interesting quantum gravity theories would certainly be off the table," he added.
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