Theoretical research led by Professor Enrique Gazta\u00f1aga of the University of Portsmouth challenges the longstanding scientific belief that wormholes constitute a physical passage through spacetime. Gazta\u00f1aga proposes that these structures, known as Einstein-Rosen bridges, act as \u201cmirrors\u201d connecting two opposite temporal directions.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
A mirror in time<\/p>\n
Gazta\u00f1aga\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
This \u201cmirror\u201d 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<\/a> is lost permanently. According to the new theory, information persists by transferring into the time-reversed section of the bridge.<\/p>\n Evidence in the early universe<\/p>\n 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\u2014a slight preference for one orientation over its mirror image.<\/p>\n Standard cosmological models interpret this asymmetry as a statistical anomaly with very low probability. However, Gazta\u00f1aga\u2019s team asserts that these patterns are consistent with a universe that includes mirror quantum components.<\/p>\n The Big Bounce theory<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Instead, it may have been a \u201cquantum bounce\u201d\u2014a transition where a collapsing previous universe reached a critical density and expanded again to form our current universe.<\/p>\n