hello guys, it's #scicomm time! today we'll be talking about Wormholes, their origin, the mechanics behind them and their use in popular culture in this fun, gif laden thread! let's go! (1/24)

To begin, a wormhole or Einstein-Rosen bridge can simply be defined as the speculative solution to the Einstein field equations aka a part of the famous General theory of relativity to understand the relationship between gravity and spacetime. (2/24)

What is the famous field equations you ask? Einstein, while studying about spactime devised 10 equations which described the nature of gravity after being curved by mass and energy in a particular point in space. (3/24)

Now, even though the theory of relativity and the field equations passed every test, they seem to be incompatible with quantum theory aka the physics of fundamental particles. The other giant pillar of physics. (4/24)

Scientists have for long tried to find a way to link relativity with quantum mechanics but the uncertainty in the nature of fundamental particles (muons, neutrinos, quarks etc) doesn't allow this to happen. (5/24)

Now how did wormholes even come into existence out of these intimidating equations? Well, studying the mathematical solution for the existence of black holes lent us the first signs of wormholes, bringing these strange structures to light. (6/24)

It was found that these solutions pointed towards a structure whose geometrical interpretation was having two copies of a blackhole connected by a "throat" aka the Einstein-Rosen bridge. (7/24)

As for the Rosen in Einstein-Rosen, the name refers to Israeli-American physicist Nathan Rosen notably known for his work on the hydrogen atom and his collaborations with Einstein. (8/24)

Now the crazy thing about wormholes is that all theory points to them being a viable solution for taking shortcuts in space time and quite possibly time travel (9/24)

Needless to say this sounds wild and disturbing at the same time, to have the ability to alter time to your willing, something the fundamental laws of physics don't yet allow us to do. (10/24)

The question arises: Are wormholes even real? Safe to say that is a tricky question. Certain solutions of general relativity do allow for the existence of wormholes where its mouth is a blackhole. However it's presence is not confirmed in just every other blackhole (11/24)

Also primordial wormholes- the wormholes that have been in existence from the earliest times in the universe are predicted to exist in microscopic levels-a measly 10^-33 centimeters. (12/24)

It is safe to say that this is only a prediction because chances are that these wormholes grew in size as the universe expanded. But before we all get excited, its important to know that wormholes are extremely unstable. Why, you ask? (13/24)

Black holes in general are unstable structures, only stabilizing with time because they go through a phenomenon called Hawking radiation where the one of the members of the particle-antiparticle pair that pop in & out of existence near the event horizon gets swallowed (14/24)

this creates an imbalance and causes the blackhole to quite literally evaporate photons & slowly blink out of existence. This very instability can only be combated by introducing "exotic particles" aka fundamental particles w negative mass (crazy i know but hear me out) (15/24)

Fundamental particles are expected to have counterparts with negative mass. For example whilst matter will help you bend a trampoline down, an exotic particle will pull you up. Exotic particles are all sorts of weird, possessing strange properties (16/24)

but they're the only visible (theoretical solutions) to keep a blackhole stable enough to act as a wormholes. There isn't any experimental evidence of wormholes but hey, one can dream right? (17/24)

Now for my favorite part. Wormholes have been a hot topic in popular culture including novels, movies and video games because of their popularity as providing potential time travelling abilities (18/24)

Examples include the novel "Contact" by Carl Sagan where the protagonist Dr. Ellie Arroway gets transported to the star Vega by entering a blackhole and exiting light years away via a wormhole. One of my favorite representations even if not very accurate (19/24)

Second example includes the hit Christopher Nolan movie Interstellar where the Endurance crew enters a wormhole near Saturn to visit a new galaxy with habitable planets. If you are lucky to find a wormhole, chances are that it'll have a close resemblance to this. (20/24)

Lastly but definitely my favorite, wormholes are given a new representation in the german sci-fi, dystopian series "Dark" which contains a man made passage, an affect of a nuclear power plant explosion, creating a wormhole to open passages to every 33 years. (21/24)

Now even though wormholes are a fantasy for now, it's fascinating to know what gets birthed out of physics equations and the very structure of spacetime. Chances are, they might even exist and be functional in higher dimensions but its just hypothesis for now. (22/24)

Scientists have also claimed to found different species of wormholes free of exotic material and can produce negative energy in their entrances, meaning they are free from the black hole paradox, hence ripe candidates for time travel (23/24)

Then again there are fundamental laws to consider. Things that look fascinating on paper but nearly impossible practically.
"What things does physical laws permit an infinitely advanced civilization to perform and what do the laws forbid?" Well,who knows what comes next? (24/24)

If there's anything that can be added, I would love suggestions! We're all learning here and I really want to make science threads a weekly feature so please tell me how to improve!!