Theoretical research led by Professor Enrique Gaztañaga of the University of Portsmouth challenges the longstanding scientific belief that wormholes constitute a physical passage through spacetime. Gaztañaga proposes that these structures, known as Einstein-Rosen bridges, act as “mirrors” connecting two opposite temporal directions.
Published in Classical and Quantum Gravity, the study contends that the bridge-like passage described by Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen in 1935 was not intended as a galactic transit system. According to the research, general relativity prevents matter from passing through such a bridge because it would collapse faster than light could travel across it.
A mirror in time
Gaztañaga’s team applied a modern quantum interpretation to revisit the 1935 equations. They found that rather than a passage between two distant points in space, the bridge represents a connection between two symmetrical versions of spacetime. In this model, one version experiences time flowing forward, while its mirror counterpart experiences time flowing backward.
This “mirror” framework addresses the black hole information paradox, a conflict between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Quantum mechanics asserts that information cannot be destroyed, while general relativity implies that information falling into a black hole is lost permanently. According to the new theory, information persists by transferring into the time-reversed section of the bridge.
Evidence in the early universe
The researchers point to existing data from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which is the radiation left over from the early universe. For approximately 20 years, cosmologists have observed a small asymmetry in this radiation—a slight preference for one orientation over its mirror image.
Standard cosmological models interpret this asymmetry as a statistical anomaly with very low probability. However, Gaztañaga’s team asserts that these patterns are consistent with a universe that includes mirror quantum components.
The Big Bounce theory
The implications of this theory extend to the very origin of existence, as it proposes that the Big Bang may not have been the absolute beginning of time.
Instead, it may have been a “quantum bounce”—a transition where a collapsing previous universe reached a critical density and expanded again to form our current universe.
The study suggests that “our universe might effectively be the interior of a black hole formed in another cosmos,” implying that the universe possessed a functional history prior to the Big Bang.
This research does not replace the theories of Einstein or quantum mechanics. Instead, it seeks to integrate them into a unified, consistent framework describing gravity at the microscopic scale.
While the theory excludes the possibility of using wormholes for interstellar travel, it provides a mathematical framework for understanding how time and gravity interact at the most fundamental levels.
The team suggests that future observations of dark matter and early cosmic relics may provide further evidence for this time-reversed model.