106 research outputs found
Tolman wormholes violate the strong energy condition
For an arbitrary Tolman wormhole, unconstrained by symmetry, we shall define
the bounce in terms of a three-dimensional edgeless achronal spacelike
hypersurface of minimal volume. (Zero trace for the extrinsic curvature plus a
"flare-out" condition.) This enables us to severely constrain the geometry of
spacetime at and near the bounce and to derive general theorems regarding
violations of the energy conditions--theorems that do not involve geodesic
averaging but nevertheless apply to situations much more general than the
highly symmetric FRW-based subclass of Tolman wormholes. [For example: even
under the mildest of hypotheses, the strong energy condition (SEC) must be
violated.] Alternatively, one can dispense with the minimal volume condition
and define a generic bounce entirely in terms of the motion of test particles
(future-pointing timelike geodesics), by looking at the expansion of their
timelike geodesic congruences. One re-confirms that the SEC must be violated at
or near the bounce. In contrast, it is easy to arrange for all the other
standard energy conditions to be satisfied.Comment: 8 pages, ReV-TeX 3.
Geometric structure of the generic static traversable wormhole throat
Traversable wormholes have traditionally been viewed as intrinsically
topological entities in some multiply connected spacetime. Here, we show that
topology is too limited a tool to accurately characterize a generic traversable
wormhole: in general one needs geometric information to detect the presence of
a wormhole, or more precisely to locate the wormhole throat. For an arbitrary
static spacetime we shall define the wormhole throat in terms of a
2-dimensional constant-time hypersurface of minimal area. (Zero trace for the
extrinsic curvature plus a "flare-out" condition.) This enables us to severely
constrain the geometry of spacetime at the wormhole throat and to derive
generalized theorems regarding violations of the energy conditions-theorems
that do not involve geodesic averaging but nevertheless apply to situations
much more general than the spherically symmetric Morris-Thorne traversable
wormhole. [For example: the null energy condition (NEC), when suitably weighted
and integrated over the wormhole throat, must be violated.] The major technical
limitation of the current approach is that we work in a static spacetime-this
is already a quite rich and complicated system.Comment: 25 pages; plain LaTeX; uses epsf.sty (four encapsulated postscript
figures
Wormhole Cosmology and the Horizon Problem
We construct an explicit class of dynamic lorentzian wormholes connecting
Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) spacetimes. These wormholes can allow two-way
transmission of signals between spatially separated regions of spacetime and
could permit such regions to come into thermal contact. The cosmology of a
network of early Universe wormholes is discussed.Comment: 13 pages, in RevTe
of the quantized fields in the Unruh state in the Schwarzschild spacetime
The renormalized expectation value of the stress energy tensor of the
conformally invariant massless fields in the Unruh state in the Schwarzschild
spacetime is constructed. It is achieved through solving the conservation
equation in conformal space and utilizing the regularity conditions in the
physical metric. The relations of obtained results to the existing
approximations are analysed.Comment: 17 pages, REVTE
Dynamic wormholes, anti-trapped surfaces, and energy conditions
Adapting and extending a suggestion due to Page, we define a wormhole throat
to be a marginally anti-trapped surface, that is, a closed two-dimensional
spatial hypersurface such that one of the two future-directed null geodesic
congruences orthogonal to it is just beginning to diverge. Typically a dynamic
wormhole will possess two such throats, corresponding to the two orthogonal
null geodesic congruences, and these two throats will not coincide, (though
they do coalesce into a single throat in the static limit). The divergence
property of the null geodesics at the marginally anti-trapped surface
generalizes the ``flare-out'' condition for an arbitrary wormhole. We derive
theorems regarding violations of the null energy condition (NEC) at and near
these throats and find that, even for wormholes with arbitrary time-dependence,
the violation of the NEC is a generic property of wormhole throats. We also
discuss wormhole throats in the presence of fully antisymmetric torsion and
find that the energy condition violations cannot be dumped into the torsion
degrees of freedom. Finally by means of a concrete example we demonstrate that
even temporary suspension of energy-condition violations is incompatible with
the flare-out property of dynamic throats.Comment: 32 pages in plain LaTex, no figures. Additional text and references
adde
Thin-shell wormholes in Einstein-Maxwell theory with a Gauss-Bonnet term
We study five dimensional thin-shell wormholes in Einstein-Maxwell theory
with a Gauss-Bonnet term. The linearized stability under radial perturbations
and the amount of exotic matter are analyzed as a function of the parameters of
the model. We find that the inclusion of the quadratic correction substantially
widens the range of possible stable configurations, and besides it allows for a
reduction of the exotic matter required to construct the wormholes.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures; v2: minor changes and new references added.
Accepted for publication in General Relativity and Gravitatio
Can a wormhole supported by only small amounts of exotic matter really be traversable?
Recent studies have shown that (a) quantum effects may be sufficient to
support a wormhole throat and (b) the total amount of "exotic matter" can be
made arbitrarily small. Unfortunately, using only small amounts of exotic
matter may result in a wormhole that flares out too slowly to be traversable in
a reasonable length of time. Combined with the Ford-Roman constraints, the
wormhole may also come close to having an event horizon at the throat. This
paper examines a model that overcomes these difficulties, while satisfying the
usual traversability conditions. This model also confirms that the total amount
of exotic matter can indeed be made arbitrarily small.Comment: 8 pages, AMSTe
Gauge Field Back-reaction on a Black Hole
The order fluctuations of gauge fields in the vicinity of a blackhole
can create a repulsive antigravity region extending out beyond the renormalized
Schwarzschild horizon. If the strength of this repulsive force increases as
higher orders in the back-reaction are included, the formation of a
wormhole-like object could occur.Comment: 17 pages, three figures available on request, in RevTe
Cylindrical thin-shell wormholes
A general formalism for the dynamics of non rotating cylindrical thin-shell
wormholes is developed. The time evolution of the throat is explicitly obtained
for thin-shell wormholes whose metric has the form associated to local cosmic
strings. It is found that the throat collapses to zero radius, remains static
or expands forever, depending only on the sign of its initial velocity.Comment: 10 page
Classical and semi-classical energy conditions
The standard energy conditions of classical general relativity are (mostly)
linear in the stress-energy tensor, and have clear physical interpretations in
terms of geodesic focussing, but suffer the significant drawback that they are
often violated by semi-classical quantum effects. In contrast, it is possible
to develop non-standard energy conditions that are intrinsically non-linear in
the stress-energy tensor, and which exhibit much better well-controlled
behaviour when semi-classical quantum effects are introduced, at the cost of a
less direct applicability to geodesic focussing. In this article we will first
review the standard energy conditions and their various limitations. (Including
the connection to the Hawking--Ellis type I, II, III, and IV classification of
stress-energy tensors). We shall then turn to the averaged, nonlinear, and
semi-classical energy conditions, and see how much can be done once
semi-classical quantum effects are included.Comment: V1: 25 pages. Draft chapter, on which the related chapter of the book
"Wormholes, Warp Drives and Energy Conditions" (to be published by Springer),
will be based. V2: typos fixed. V3: small typo fixe
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