Abstract
Wormholes have been studied mainly in the semiclassical approximation as solutions of the classical Euclidean field equations. However, such solutions are rather special, and exist only for certain kinds of matter. On the other hand, one can represent wormholes in a more general manner as solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation with appropriate boundary conditions. Minisuperspace models with massless minimal or conformal scalar fields have a discrete spectrum of these solutions. The Giddings-Strominger instanton solution corresponds to a sum of an infinite number of these solutions. Minisuperspace models with a massive scalar field also appear to have a discrete spectrum of such solutions, whose asymptotic form is given.
- Received 16 May 1990
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.42.2655
©1990 American Physical Society
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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."
