BBC Focus Magazine

[MikeG]

Wormholes are easy enough to understand when we look at the picture in the link below. But is there any proof that such a pronounced curvature exists?

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/strange ... mhole.html

[...]

it is still deep in the realms of theoretical physics.
im sure my dad had the use of a wormhole though, always showing up out of nowhere when i was up to no good

[M Paul Lloyd]

Well we know that gravity can distort space-time and if you imagine the Earth as a sphere being rotated in a pot of honey with the honey closest to the sphere being dragged around with it, where the honey is space-time being pulled along with the mass of the Earth........... and by default this must have some sort of connection with the Higgs field............. but before I get distracted with such things........... the wormhole theory suggests that one or more sufficiently massive objects, say a Black Holes for example, could distort space time so much that two very distant points in space time could be drawn together by a sort of trans-dimensional 'gateway' or 'wormhole' if you like. Nicely illustrated by your little image MikeG.

However the sort of forces at work within such a 'rift' in the fabric of space-time would likely make it less than suitable for organic life, or indeed as a form of transportation of any kind for phyiscal matter, but, if the theory holds then it might just offer a means to communicate across the vastness of the universe in a manner that would defy the accepted laws of physics.
You might even be able to communicate with your own past or future self?

But... as @@ points out, it is all theoretical.

[Boris Richardson]

"But is there any proof that such a pronounced curvature exists?"

We need not seek proof such curvature, because our best theories of physics permits it.

We have no proof that the laws of physics apply within a particular cubic centimeter at, say, the center of the sun. However, we have well tested these laws, have consequently accepted them, and therefore believe their assumptions -- in particular that these laws apply everywhere.

Despite a fair amount of effort, no one has yet found a way to exclude the possibility of wormholes, when quantum effects are considered. So if the we believe the theory, we believe the possibility of the curvature it permits.

Source: The Physics of Stargates: Parallel Universes, Time Travel, and the Enigma of Wormhole Physics by Enrico Rodrigo

[Shadowwolf]

We have no proof that the laws of physics apply within a particular cubic centimeter at, say, the center of the sun.

True, but we do know that these laws do apply somewhere and so can rest on more than mathematical models.

Whilst there has been no way to exclude wormholes from a model we have not actually found a single example yet. But otherwise I would take the point that they certainly are plausible given what we currently know.