White holes open up the possibility of time travel

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The possibility of the existence of white holes was first proposed by the theoretical astrophysicist Igor Novikov in 1964.

A white hole is a hypothetical region in spacetime that is predicted as part of the solution to Einstein's field equations.

But let's start with black holes because they are easier to explain. Black holes form when the center of a large dying star hits itself. The entire mass is squeezed out into an infinitely small volume. Their gravitational attraction becomes so great that even light cannot escape it.

White holes are exactly the opposite of black holes: although nothing can escape from the event horizon of a black hole, nothing can enter the event horizon of a white hole. Simply put, the white hole spits everything out and nothing enters.

The concept of a white hole is extremely complex. Thus, we have tried to explain it in small sections. By the end of this article, you will have learned a lot more about this intriguing phenomenon.

Do white holes exist?

The white hole is just a theoretical mathematical concept and has not been observed in the universe. Most discussions about white holes revolve around the words hypothetical, impracticable, and unreal.

They are a potential solution to the laws of general relativity, which imply that if eternal black holes exist, then white holes must also exist in the universe.

They are expected to have properties such as mass, charge, angular momentum, but anything that approaches a white hole (even at the speed of light) will never reach it. In theory, there isn't enough energy in our universe to pull you inward.

They violate the second law of thermodynamics

One of the main reasons why white holes are considered unreal is that they reduce entropy, which is contrary to the law of thermodynamics.

The second law of thermodynamics says that the total entropy of the universe is constantly increasing, so the change in entropy is always positive. This is why white holes don't fit into our current model of the universe.

Evidence for white holes

While the evidence and information regarding white holes remains uncertain, a gamma-ray burst, named GRB 060614, discovered by Neil Gerel's Swift Observatory in 2006, is considered the first recorded event for a white hole.

Unlike typical GRBs, which last only a few seconds, the GRB 060614 hybrid burst lasted for a remarkable 102 seconds, but was not associated with a supernova. This called into question the previous scientific consensus regarding black holes and other types of celestial bodies that can emit gamma-ray bursts.

White holes can make up dark matter

In 2018, scientists suggested that white holes with microscopic diameters could make up dark matter. Such tiny white holes will not emit any radiation, and since they are shorter than the wavelength of light, they will be invisible.

Dark matter makes up about 27% of our universe, and its local density is about 1% of the Sun's mass per cubic parsec. To account for this density with white holes, the team estimated that one microscopic white hole (about one millionth of a gram and much smaller than a proton) is required per 10,000 cubic kilometers.

White holes may even precede the Big Bang

Another intriguing theory put forward by the researchers is that white holes could explain the Big Bang, as this is another case where a huge amount of matter and energy spontaneously appeared.

In fact, it was argued that the Big Bang was the result of a white hole explosion, which supposedly spewed out all the matter and information that was absorbed by the black hole.

Obviously, we don't know if the theory is correct or not, but again, it's funny to think that life arose from a white hole.

White hole and black hole connected through a wormhole

One of the main reasons for studying the existence of white holes is that they can solve a mystery: what is happening in the center of a black hole. What happens to all the information that gets sucked in?

Several theories suggest there is a white hole at the other end of the black hole. All matter and information absorbed by the black hole is thrown by the white hole into another universe.

The "entry" of a black hole and the "exit" of a white hole may be associated with two completely different universes. And what makes this connection possible is called a wormhole: it can be thought of as a tunnel with two ends, each at a different location in spacetime.

The theory of general relativity has real equations that consist of wormholes, however, they have not yet been observed in the universe. A wormhole can connect short distances (a few meters), extremely long distances (millions of light years), or different universes.

In 1935, scientists discovered a type 1 wormhole, called a Schwarzschild wormhole, using Einstein's theory of general relativity. The entire Schwarzschild metric consists of a white hole, a black hole, and two separate worlds connected at their event horizons through a wormhole.

Schwarzschild's solution has two real equations - positive and negative square root. The latter explains that the black hole is moving backward in time, which is also a white hole.

White holes open up possibilities for time travel

Under certain conditions, a wormhole can connect two points in time instead of two points in space. Thus, an object swallowed by a black hole can pass through the wormhole and erupt as a white hole in another region of time [or space].

However, the concept has numerous disadvantages. For example, an object falling into a black hole will not be able to withstand its enormous gravitational pull. And since the wormhole is incredibly unstable, it will instantly collapse on itself.

However, some physicists have shown that a wormhole (if it exists) can allow travel in both space and time. Professor Kip Thorne of the California Institute of Technology, who is also a Nobel laureate, suggested that these three phenomena (black holes, wormholes, and white holes) could allow humans to travel back and forth in time (thousands of years).

Honestly, there are hundreds of theories regarding white holes, but scientists have not found convincing evidence to support their existence. Maybe there is even a place for them in our vast mysterious universe.