Associate professor
Stephen Hsu's
research has
applications for the
knowledge and
understanding of
wormholes. His
findings have led
him to believe the
existence of
wormholes
is unlikely.
Zane RnT | Photographer
UO researchers
doubt existence
of wormholes
A ''fundamental question of physics' wormholes came
into public interest after Carl Sagan wrote about them
BY EVA SYLWESTER
NEWS REPORTER
Wormholes and the time ma
chines that can theoretically travel
through them have been the subject
of science fiction movies and novels
for decades. A team of researchers in
the University’s Institute of Theoret
ical Science has found the existence
of wormholes to be unlikely.
Associate professor of physics
Stephen Hsu said the findings,
which have received media atten
tion in Great Britain, Canada and
Argentina, were actually derived
from a search of less sensational
knowledge regarding the fundamen
tal properties of matter, energy
and pressure.
“It’s funny that certain things re
ally capture the public attention and
other things that we do ... generally
don’t capture the public’s imagina
tion,” Hsu said.
Hsu described wormholes as simi
lar to a tube connecting two distant
points in the universe, like a short
cut. In theory, they could be used for
time travel.
Hsu said public and scientific in
terest in wormholes began when as
tronomer Carl Sagan wrote a quasi
realistic novel featuring them 20 or
30 years ago.
“It was ironic that a scientist writ
ing science fiction got other scien
tists to think about it,” Hsu said.
“It appears in science fiction, but
it’s a very fundamental question
of physics.”
Hsu said his work is heavily
mathematical, in the domain of
theoretical rather than experimental
physics.
“We can ask mathematically,
‘If one could have a wormhole,
what properties would it have?”’
Hsu said.
Post-doctoral fellow Roman
Buniy said other researchers had
been constructing and testing
models of dark energy, a poorly
understood force scientists believe
comprises about three-fourths of
the universe. He and Hsu worked to
determine which of these models
was possible and impossible. In this
work with a broad class of theories,
they found that if some important
condition of the laws of the universe
was violated in a system, the system
was completely unstable.
Buniy said Hsu noticed this would
apply to wormholes.
“It’s almost as if there’s a kind of
conspiracy,” Hsu said. “Whenever
you try to build a wormhole, it’ll
be unstable.”
Hsu said wormholes would be
likely to fall apart because tiny distur
bances inside would be magnified.
“It’s a very violent instability,”
Buniy said. “For physicists, it’s very
... contrary to every belief. You
would just have to rule it out.”
Buniy said in a normal situation,
a disrupted system returns itself to
its original condition, but a worm
hole would require that not to be
true. He said a normal system is like
a ball at the bottom of a concave pit,
where even if the pit is shaken the
ball will eventually return to its orig
inal position. By contrast, an unsta
ble system such as a wormhole is
like a ball balanced on top of a
sphere, which will roll off at the
slightest provocation and not come
back on its own.
Buniy said the existence of quan
tum time machines or wormholes
was not ruled out, only the existence
of wormholes in the world that hu
mans inhabit. However, in the quan
tum world, where one small particle
can turn into another, time travel
would be extremely unpredictable.
“If you do jump out, it may be not
you,” Buniy said.
Buniy said the team may look
more carefully at quantum systems
in the future.
evasylwester@dailyem.emld. com
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