Study Suggests We Were Wrong About Einstein's Wormhole Idea || Leonard Susskind скачать в хорошем качестве

Study Suggests We Were Wrong About Einstein's Wormhole Idea || Leonard Susskind

Scientists now suggest that our long‑standing image of wormholes—as tunnels through space that could connect distant parts of the universe—might be a misinterpretation of Einstein’s original idea. In the 1930s Albert Einstein and his colleague Nathan Rosen described what’s now called an Einstein‑Rosen bridge, a mathematical feature of the equations of general relativity. But recent studies argue that this bridge wasn’t meant to depict a physical shortcut through space at all; instead, it may be a reflection of deeper properties of spacetime and time itself, when quantum effects are taken into account. Traditionally, scientists and science fiction writers alike have imagined wormholes as potential shortcuts that could allow travel across vast cosmic distances almost instantaneously. This concept comes from general relativity, where certain solutions can mathematically connect two separate regions of spacetime. However, actual physics has always suggested that such tunnels would be extremely unstable and require exotic conditions—such as negative energy—to stay open, conditions that have never been observed in nature. The new research reframes the Einstein–Rosen bridge not as a literal tunnel but as something more abstract: a kind of quantum link between two mirrored or time‑reversed parts of spacetime. In this view, the bridge might reflect how time behaves at the quantum level, shedding light on puzzles like how information might be preserved in black holes or how the universe might evolve through cycles rather than from a singular “beginning.” This perspective doesn’t support the idea of using wormholes for travel, but it could help bridge the gap between general relativity and quantum mechanics—a major goal in physics. Ultimately, what this study suggests is less about “was Einstein wrong?” and more about how our interpretation of his equations has evolved. Einstein and Rosen originally introduced their bridge to address technical issues in relativity, not to propose cosmic highways for spaceships. Modern theoretical physics, combining relativity with quantum theory, shows that what was once thought of as a tunnel might instead be a window into the deeper structure of spacetime and time itself, challenging long‑standing misconceptions and inspiring new directions in fundamental research.