DOW-UAP-D139, AAWSAP DIRD, Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy, April 2010

This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD examines traversable wormholes and “stargates” as hypothetical spacetime structures within general relativity that theoretically offer a means of faster-than-light travel or communication. The report focuses extensively on the requirement for exotic, negative-energy matter to stabilize and keep such geometries open for the passage of macro-scale objects. It reviews standard wormhole models, describes a flat-throated “stargate” variant, and argues that violations of general relativity's standard energy conditions do not physically rule such structures out, citing microscopic, transient negative-energy effects observed in Casimir-type laboratory phenomena. However, the document acknowledges that the transition from microscopic quantum fluctuations to macroscopic engineering is an unresolved barrier. While small-scale negative-energy effects are observable, there is no known mechanism to generate, concentrate, or stabilize the amounts of exotic matter proposed to be required to sustain a traversable macroscopic wormhole. Ultimately, while the paper frames wormhole concepts within accepted relativistic physics, it confirms that the gap between theoretical models and any realizable technology remains enormous.

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Defense
Intelligence
Reference
Document
Acquisition Threat Support
6 April 2010
!COD: 1 December 2009
DIA-08-1004-004
Traversable Wormholes,
Stargates, and Negative
Energy
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Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy
Prepared by:
Acquisition support Division (DW0-3)
Defense Warning Office
Directorate for Analysis
Defense Intelligence Agency
MP Person 58
Administrative Note
COPYRIGHT WARNING: Further dissemination of the photographs in this publication is not authorized.
This product is one in a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009
under the Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Warning Office's Advanced Aerospace
Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. Comments or questions pertaining to
I
this document should be addressed tolAAP Person 1 AAWSA Program
Manager, Defense Intelligence Agency, ATTN: CLAR/DWO-3, Bldg 6000, Washington,
DC 20340-5100.
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Contents
I. Summary .............................................................................................................v
II. A Brief Review of Transversable Wormholes and the Stargate Solution ............ 1
A. Traversable Wormholes ................................................................................. 1
B. The "Stargate" Solution ................................................................................. 4
c.
What a Wormhole Looks Like in the Real World ............................................. 7
III. The General Relativistic Definition of Exotic Matter and the Energy Conditions 9
A. Examples of Exotic or "Negative" Energy Found in Nature ........................... 10
B. Generating Negative Energy in the Lab ........................................................ 11
1. Static Radial Electric & Magnetic Fields .................................................... 11
2. Squeezed Quantum Vacuum ..................................................................... 12
3. Gravitationally Squeezed Electromagnetic ZPF......................................... 16
4. Vacuum Field Stress: Negative Energy from the Casimir Effect ................ 18
5. Dynamical Casimir Effect: Moving Mirrors ................................................ 20
6. Casimir Effect: Negative Energy for Traversable Wormholes .................... 20
IV. Constructing a Traversable Wormhole is not Easy .......................................... 21
A. Negative Energy Requirements and Energy Condition Violations ................. 21
B. Physical Constraints on Negative Energy ..................................................... 22
c.
Observing Negative Energy in the Lab.......................................................... 25
V. Conclusion: The Way Forward .......................................................................... 26
VI. References...................................................................................................... 29
Figures
Figure 1. Intra-Universe Wormhole as a Hyperspace Shortcut Through
Conventional Space .................................................................................vi
Figure 2. Inter-Universe Wormhole (top} and Intra-Universe Wormhole (bottom}.3
Figure 3. Diagram of a Simultaneous View of Two Remote Compact Regions, n1
and n2, of Minkowski Space Used to Create the Wormhole Throat on ...... 5
Figure 4. The Same Diagram as in Figure 3 Except as Viewed by an Observer
Sitting in Region n1 Who Looks Through the Wormhole Throat and Sees
n2
Remote Region on the Other Side....................................................... 5
Figure 5. A Thin Shell of (Localized} Mass-Energy Possessing Two Principal Radii
of Curvature, p1 and p2 ............................................................................ 6
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Figure 6. A Spherically Symmetric Traversable Wormhole Observed in Space........ 7
Figure 7. A Stargate ............................................................................................... 8
Figure 8. A Stargate in Times Square ..................................................................... 9
Figure 9. Conceptual Squeezed Light Negative Energy Generator ........................ 14
Figure 10. Sodium Chamber Negative Energy Separator ...................................... 15
Figure 11. Alternative Conceptual Squeezed Light Negative Energy Generator .... 15
Figure 12. Schematic of the Casimir Effect ........................................................... 18
Tables
Table 1. Substantial Gravitational Squeezing Occurs for Vacuum ZPF ................. 18
Table 2. Negative Equivalent Mass Required for Traversable Wormhole .............. 22
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Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy
I. Summary
Implementation of faster-than-light (FTL) interstellar travel via traversable
wormholes generally requires the engineering of spacetime into very
specialized local geometries. The analysis of these via Einstein's General
Theory of Relativity, plus the resultant equations of state, demonstrates that
such geometries require the use of "exotic" matter. It has been claimed that
since such matter violates the energy conditions, FTL spacetimes are not
plausible. However, it has been shown that this is a spurious issue. The
identification, magnitude, and production of exotic matter are seen to be a key
technical challenge, however. These issues are reviewed and summarized, and
an assessment on the present state of their resolution is provided.
In 1985 CalTech physicists M. Morris and K. Thorne discovered the principle of
traversable wormholes based on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity
(published in 1915). Morris and Thorne (Reference 1) and Morris et al.
(Reference 2) did this as an academic exercise at the request of Carl Sagan,
who had completed the draft of his novel Contact. This little exercise led to the
development of two new cottage industries in spacetime physics research: the
study of traversable wormholes and the study of time machines. Wormholes
are hyperspace tunnels through spacetime connecting either remote regions
within our universe or two different universes; they even connect different
dimensions and different times. Space travelers would enter one side of the
tunnel and exit the other, passing through the throat along the way. The
travelers would move at~ c (c is the speed of light, 3 x 108 m/s) through the
wormhole and therefore not violate Special Relativity, but external observers
would view the travelers as traversing multi-light-year distances through
space at FTL speed; Figure 1 illustrates this effect. A "stargate" is a special
class of traversable wormhole solutions to Einstein's general relativistic field
equation that possesses very simple physics and flat entry and exit openings.
Traversable wormholes are unlike the well-known, non-traversable Einstein­
Rosen Bridges or Schwarzschild wormholes that are formed from collapsed
stellar matter (that is, black holes) or spherically symmetric vacuum regions.
Black holes are collapsed stars that have all their mass concentrated at an
infinitesimal point where the induced gravitational field crushes all matter and
spacetime. However, even Einstein-Rosen bridges can be made traversable by
an infinitesimal tweaking of their spacetime metric. In the case of black holes,
the singularity of collapsed matter, along with its crushing gravity field, totally
blocks the way through the tunnel. A traversable wormhole does not have a
singularity blocking the tunnel or any crushing gravity field. Explorers would
enter one side of the tunnel, travel through the throat, and exit the other side.
Traversable wormholes also do not possess an event horizon, a region of high
gravitational field strength separating the inside space surrounding the black
hole's singularity from the outside universe. Once you go through a black
hole's event horizon, you can never come back out because you will have to
attain FTL speed to escape it. Not even light can escape from an event horizon.
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Figure 1. Intra-Universe Wormhole as a Hyperspace Shortcut Through Conventional Space
Traversable wormholes are creatures of classical general relativity theory
allowing for very comfortable travel through the Cosmic Neighborhood. But
from the viewpoint of modern physics, the Cosmic Neighborhood can
encompass other universes, other space dimensions, and other times beyond
the four-dimensional spacetime realm. Mankind has certainly not discovered
all of the universe's facets and will need to continue to construct new
experiments and technology in order to verify (or not) these undiscovered
facets. Wormholes can possess normal or backward (in special cases) motion
through time and normal or nonexistent gravitational stresses on space
travelers, and their entry/exit openings (or throats) are spherically shaped,
flat, cubic shaped, polyhedral shaped, generic shaped, and so forth.
Why consider wormholes for travel through space, time, and other dimensions?
All standard space propulsion engineering is based on Newton's three laws of
motion, which is dependent on the expenditure of propellant to induce thrust­
generating momentum transfer on a spacecraft. Many investigators have
proposed interstellar propulsion schemes based on a variety of nuclear (fission,
fusion, and pulsed) rockets, electric (ion or plasma) rockets, matter-
antimatter annihilation rockets, solar or laser sails, fusion or laser ramjets,
interstellar ion scoops, beamed energy propulsion (sails, rockets, and ramjets),
and so forth. Many of these modes either have been experimentally tested at
one time or another in our recent history or remain as theoretical proposals,
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but all are based on Newtonian mechanics. The limiting speed of space flight,
based on any of these modes, is the speed of light. It is important to point out
that for the interstellar travel application, Newtonian rocket propulsion modes
suffer from enormous mass ratios> 105
-
10100 (depending on the specific
impulse) for spacecraft cruise velocities > 0.0Sc, if the travel time is
constrained to within 100 years for a one-way interstellar voyage. Ifthe cruise
velocity is increased to sub-relativistic, near-relativistic, or even ultra­
relativistic speeds and thus reduces the one-way travel time, then the mass
ratio increases (exponentially!). The mass ratio is the initial spacecraft mass
(payload +structure+ propellant) at launch divided by the final spacecraft
mass (payload + structure) at "burnout." The large ratios given above show
that Newtonian rockets consist mostly of propellant in order to propel the
propellant, along with a given tiny payload, through interstellar space. The
specific impulse is a measure of rocket propulsion system efficiency: how
much impulse (thrust multiplied by time) is produced per unit of mass of
propellant expenditure. It is desired that rocket propulsion systems possess a
very high specific impulse in order to reduce the mass ratio, and hence
propellant mass requirement, to reasonable levels.
The non-traditional propulsion modes (sails, ramjets, beamed power, etc.)
have different efficiencies and constraints, but they are all still dependent on
Newtonian mechanics, even though their mass ratio and specific impulse
characteristics are slightly improved over that of the traditional modes. But all
traditional and non-traditional propulsion modes come with a great cost in
interstellar voyage travel time. At non-relativistic and sub-relativistic cruise
speeds, it will take explorers several human lifetimes to reach stellar
destinations. At low relativistic to ultra-relativistic cruise speeds, the travel
time will be reduced to hours, days, weeks, months, or years. However, at
these cruise speeds, relativistic time dilation will kick in, and the returning
interstellar voyagers will find that decades to thousands of years have elapsed
on Earth since their launch date and that their families and culture no longer
exist or are unrecognizable. This is an undesirable outcome for any interstellar
voyage. Furthermore, traditional Newtonian propulsion cannot transcend time
or spacetime dimensions or universes.
The solution to this problem is to dispense entirely with long interstellar
voyage times or the undesirable outcome of relativistic time dilation. Explorers
could deploy a wormhole-stargate near the Earth's surface, in Earth's orbit, or
anywhere in the solar system they like and just pass through the "stargate"
and come out the other side in remote spacetime within seconds, moving
through the throat at low cruise speeds (30 mph!) and with no time dilation
effects. Explorers could travel through the wormhole-stargates in small scout
ships or send probes unencumbered by either enormous propellant mass
ratios or extensive life support provisions. Effective travel time through the
Cosmic Neighborhood via stargates would become irrelevant but could be
estimated to be many times or thousands of times the speed of light. Explorers
could spend all day investigating the remote spacetime location and then
return home through the stargate in time to have dinner with their families. If
explorers were to really push the envelope, they would design their stargate
so they could return from their voyage in time to wave goodbye to themselves
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as they see themselves depart on their journey. This is no longer recognized in
classical general relativity physics as a time paradox issue. It is very easy to
build a time machine, given a traversable wormhole. But time travel via
wormhole is beyond the scope of this paper. Suffice it to say that classical
general relativity theory is seriously infested with time machines; the theory
both allows for and demands time travel in order to preserve self-consistency
of dynamic spacetime solutions for just about every problem ever studied.
Implementation of FTL interstellar travel via traversable wormholes generally
requires the engineering of spacetime into very specialized local geometries.
Analysis of these via the general relativistic field equation, plus the resultant
source matter equations of state, demonstrates that such geometries require
the use of "exotic" matter in order to produce the requisite FTL spacetime
modification. Exotic matter is generally defined by general relativity physics to
be matter that possesses (renormalized} negative energy density (sometimes
negative stress-tension = outward pressure, aka gravitational repulsion or
antigra