Wormholes in spacetime

S. W. Hawking
Phys. Rev. D 37, 904 – Published 15 February 1988
An article within the collection: The Work of Stephen Hawking in Physical Review
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Abstract

Any reasonable theory of quantum gravity will allow closed universes to branch off from our nearly flat region of spacetime. I describe the possible quantum states of these closed universes. They correspond to wormholes which connect two asymptotically Euclidean regions, or two parts of the same asymptotically Euclidean region. I calculate the influence of these wormholes on ordinary quantum fields at low energies in the asymptotic region. This can be represented by adding effective interactions in flat spacetime which create or annihilate closed universes containing certain numbers of particles. The effective interactions are small except for closed universes containing scalar particles in the spatially homogeneous mode. If these scalar interactions are not reduced by sypersymmetry, it may be that any scalar particles we observe would have to be bound states of particles of higher spin, such as the pion. An observer in the asymptotically flat region would not be able to measure the quantum state of closed universes that branched off. He would therefore have to sum over all possibilities for the closed universes. This would mean that the final state would appear to be a mixed quantum state, rather than a pure quantum state.

  • Received 28 October 1987

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.37.904

©1988 American Physical Society

Collections

This article appears in the following collection:

The Work of Stephen Hawking in Physical Review

To mark the passing of Stephen Hawking, we gathered together his 55 papers in Physical Review D and Physical Review Letters. They probe the edges of space and time, from "Black holes and thermodynamics” to "Wave function of the Universe."

Authors & Affiliations

S. W. Hawking

  • Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EW, England

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Issue

Vol. 37, Iss. 4 — 15 February 1988

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