One thesis assumes that black holes could hide wormholes. If so, how could we distinguish its presence? Theoretical physics explores this question.
The existence of black holes, which were only theoretical a few decades ago, is beginning to be established – in particular thanks to spectacular photos. However, they remain mysterious. But, there are celestial objects and phenomena which remain purely hypothetical. This is the case with another type of hole: wormholes (sometimes described as “vortices” in fiction).
Black hole and wormhole, a long scientific history
The principle – idealized – is well known to the public as it is represented in science fiction. These holes would be transdimensional portals allowing travel from point A to point B in space. They would even potentially be spatiotemporal by also bending time. In any case, it would be a shortcut in the cosmos. It is not yet known if they exist. Nor even if they can physically exist. We are therefore swimming in full theoretical physics.
Among some physicists, there is a recurring thesis: since black holes contort matter, compressing it and spinning it until they reach the event horizon (the black zone in the center), they could be worm. The idea is based on another hypothetical object: white holes (which unlike black holes have not been demonstrated to date). Where the black hole absorbs; the white hole would reject. So basically, by bending space-time, the black hole would end up linking up with a white hole.
This hypothesis has existed since the 1930s and the work of Nathan Rosen describes this possible phenomenon as a kind of bridge in space-time, through which matter could pass. Still in 2020, we were talking to you in our columns about a study in pre-publication evoking the possibility that certain black holes are simply “disguised” wormholes.
Wormholes ‘advance to the frontiers of science’
On November 15, 2022, a model published in the journal Physical Review D, once again brings grain to grind to these hypotheses. “ Ten years ago, wormholes were completely in the realm of science fiction. Now they are advancing to the frontiers of science and people are actively seeking “, Details one of the authors, Petya Nedkova, with New Scientist. Although it is still technically pure SF, theoretical research is advancing.
This Bulgarian scientific team has developed a mathematical model, composed on a computer, which leads to the following hypothesis: the discs of matter swirling around the edges of black holes are almost impossible to distinguish from the discs of matter swirling around a potential hole. of worm. The polarization of light (the way it rearranges around the black hole’s event horizon) expresses only a 4% difference between the two celestial objects, in this model. On the scale of such monsters, it is tiny.
So, if wormholes existed, could we ever find out?
Could we detect a wormhole?
According to the authors of this modeling, the brake on any detection of a wormhole would therefore be purely technical today – technological, in reality. The difficulty being that any search must rely on the light around the black hole itself, since at its heart, past the event horizon, you simply can’t see anything. However, this light is itself difficult to study.
” Based on current observations, you can’t tell a black hole from a wormhole — there might be a wormhole right there, but you can’t tell the difference “says Petya Nedkova. So maybe Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole in the Milky Way, is a wormhole dumping its matter elsewhere in the cosmos.
There are many ways to find out according to this research team – by studying the scattering of light in more detail to identify the subtleties – but no device would be able to do so today. And for good reason, it would take a much higher resolution to detect this 4% difference, and these objects are located very, very far from us. This is also where the revolution of black hole photographs can come as reinforcements.
“If you were nearby, you would find out too late. »
Well, of course, another solution would be to go there. ” If you were nearby, you would find out too late. You would see the difference if you die or pass through », laughs the physicist. But, here, of course, we remain in the domain of a fictional science story.
In any case, the quest for hypothetical wormholes will not stop at this study. If the latter suggests a potential characteristic of what would distinguish a wormhole, other modeling could well, soon, put the finger on another determining ingredient which would be within our reach. Or, the technologies could become powerful enough to give us the first answers. If all this is theoretical physics, the progress of science can bring its share of surprises – remember that the first exoplanets were detected exactly 30 years ago, in 1992.