The Physics of Wormholes
A Brief Description of the Fascinating Properties of These Space-Time Tunnels
Wormholes are solutions of the field equations in Einstein’s theory of gravitation that resemble a tunnel (or shortcut) either between two identical universes in the interior of eternal black holes or between two distant points in spacetime. Since via wormholes, one can short-circuit enormous distances in space and time (see figure below), they can, in principle, be used for space travel or even to travel into the past. However, wormholes are often unstable structures (though there are, in the scientific literature, proposals involving exotic matter with negative energy that would avoid such instability), and their very existence is still an open question (see this link).
The name “wormhole” was coined by the famous American physicist John Wheeler (who also invented the name “black hole”).
The first type of wormhole was discovered by the Austrian physicist Ludwig Flamm. The discovery was published in his 1916 paper “Comments on Einstein’s Theory of Gravity” (see figure below).
