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| Wormhole illustration |
A small team of astrophysicists affiliated with several institutions in
China has found evidence that suggests if wormholes are real, they might
magnify light by 100,000 times. In their paper published in the journal
Physical Review Letters, the group describes the theories they have
developed and possible uses for them.
Prior theoretical efforts have suggested that wormholes might exist in the
universe, described as tunnels of a sort, connecting different parts of the
universe. Some in the physics community have suggested that it may be
possible to traverse such tunnels, allowing for faster-than-light travel
across the universe. The researchers note that prior research has shown that
black holes have such a strong gravitational pull that they are able to bend
light, a phenomenon known as microlensing. They then wondered if wormholes,
if they exist, also exhibit microlensing.
Proving that wormholes cause microlensing would, of course, involve first
proving that wormholes exist. Still, the researchers suggest that general
relativity and other theories could clarify whether the idea is even
possible. In their work, they discovered that it was possible to calculate
how an electric charge associated with a wormhole would warp the light
passing by it. They also found theoretical evidence that wormhole
microlensing would be similar to black hole lensing, which, they note, would
make it difficult to tell the two apart.
The group noted also that prior research has shown that black holes can
split the light that moves past them, producing different numbers of copies
of an object situated behind them. The math for a wormhole, on the other
hand, suggests that it would only be able to generate three copies of an
image behind it—two that were alike and dim, and a single bright one. And if
such copies do exist, they hold the possibility of huge magnifications—the
researchers' calculations showed magnification by as much as 100,000
times—far more than is the case for black holes.
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| The lensing geometry via the wormhole source depicted by the blue ball W , in which the corresponding potential is (14). O denotes the observer and S is the source of light. The image is represented by I. α is the deflection angle and β is the angle between the wormhole and light source. ˜Î² is the angle between the image and light source. b is the impact parameter that is perpendicular to dotted line OS. Dls, Dl, and Ds are the angular diameter distances. For simplicity, we set Dls≈Dl. z varies from S to O. Credit: Physical Review D (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.107.024022 |
This difference, they suggest, could be a way to differentiate black holes
and wormholes. They also note that if their theory is correct, wormholes
might be a new tool for studying objects that are too far away to be seen
using other methods.
Reference:
Lei-Hua Liu et al, Microlensing effect of a charged spherically symmetric
wormhole, Physical Review D (2023).
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.107.024022