新的研讨评释，时空的虫洞隧道有大概存正在

英语科技类阅读系列第8篇 — 关于虫洞的新发觉

存眷 头条+西瓜+抖音号: 杨老师STEAM教诲

Text: 890 words

Wormhole Tunnels in Spacetime May Be Possible, New Research Suggests

新的研究评释，时空的虫洞隧道有大概存在

There may be realistic ways to create cosmic bridges predicted by general relativity

大概有现实的要领来建筑广义相对论所预言的宇宙桥梁—虫洞

In the early days of research on black holes, before they even had that name, physicists did not yet know if these bizarre objects existed in the real world. They might have been a quirk of the complicated math used in the then still young general theory of relativity, which describes gravity. Over the years, though, evidence has accumulated that black holes are very real and even exist right here in our galaxy.

在黑洞研究的早期，乃至在黑洞有这个名字之前，物理学家还不知道这些奇怪的物体是否存在于实际天下中。它们（指对黑洞的研究，其时还不知道黑洞这个名字）大概成为了其时还很年轻的广义相对论中利用的庞大数学的一个怪癖，它形貌了引力。然而，多年来，越来越多的证据评释黑洞非常真实，乃至就存在于我们的银河系中。

Today another strange prediction from general relativity—wormholes, those fantastical sounding tunnels to the other side of the universe—hang in the same sort of balance. Are they real? And if they are out there in our cosmos, could humans hope to use them for getting around? After their prediction in 1935, research seemed to point toward no—wormholes appeared unlikely to be an element of reality. But new work offers hints of how they could arise, and the process may be easier than physicists have long thought.

今日，广义相对论的另一个惊奇猜测——虫洞，那些通向宇宙另一真个梦幻般的探测隧道——也处于同样的均衡状态。他们是真的吗？假如它们存在于我们的宇宙中，人类是否盼望使用它们到处走动？在1935 年的猜测之后，研究彷佛评释没有虫洞，虫洞彷佛不太大概成为实际的一个元素。但是新的研究事情提供了关于它们（虫洞）是怎样显现的线索，并且这个历程大概比物理学家恒久以来以为的要简单。

The original idea of a wormhole came from physicists Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen. They studied the strange equations that we now know describe that unescapable pocket of space we call a black hole and asked what they really represented. Einstein and Rosen discovered that, theoretically at least, a black hole’s surface might work as a bridge that connected to a second patch of space. The journey might be as if you went down the drain of your bathtub, and instead of getting stuck in the pipes, you came out into another tub just like the first.

虫洞的最初想法来自物理学家阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦和内森·罗森。他们研究了我们如今知道的用来形貌我们称之为黑洞的无法逃走的空间口袋的惊奇方程，并扣问它们真正代表了什么。爱因斯坦和罗森发觉，至少从理论上讲，黑洞的外貌可以作为毗连到第二块空间的桥梁。路程大概就像你从浴缸的排水管里失了下去，而不是卡在管道里，你像第一个一样进入另一个浴缸。

Subsequent work expanded this idea but turned up two persistent challenges that prevent the formation of easily spotted, humanly usable wormholes: fragility and tininess. First, it turns out that in general relativity, the gravitational attraction of any normal matter passing through a wormhole acts to pull the tunnel shut. Making a stable wormhole requires some kind of extra, atypical ingredient that acts to keep the hole open, which researchers call “exotic” matter.

随后的事情扩展了这个想法，但发觉了两个长期的挑衅，这些挑衅制止了简单发觉的、人类可用的虫洞的形成：脆弱性和微小。起首，究竟证明，在广义相对论中，任何穿过虫洞的正常物质的引力都市使隧道封闭。制造一个稳健的虫洞必要某种分外的、非典范的身分来连结虫洞的开放，研究职员称之为“外来”物质。

Second, the kinds of wormhole-creating processes that scientists had studied rely on effects that could prevent a macroscopic traveler from entering. The challenge is that the process that creates the wormhole and the exotic matter that stabilizes it cannot stray too far from familiar physics. “Exotic” does not mean physicists can dream up any sort of stuff that gets the job done on paper. But so far, familiar physics has delivered only microscopic wormholes. A bigger wormhole seems to require a process or type of matter that is both unusual and believable. “That’s the delicacy,” says Brianna Grado-White, a physicist and wormhole researcher at Brandeis University.

其次，科学家们研究的虫洞形成历程依靠于可以制止宏观观光者进入的影响。挑衅在于，制造虫洞的历程和稳健它的奇怪物质不克不及偏离熟习的物理学太远。 “异国情调”并不料味着物理学家可以想出任何可以在纸上完成事情的工具。但到现在为止，熟习的物理学只提供了微观虫洞。一个更大的虫洞彷佛必要一个既不平常又可信的历程或物质范例。 布兰代斯大学的物理学家和虫洞研究员布丽安娜·格拉多-怀特说，“这便是鲜味，”。

A breakthrough occurred in late 2017, when physicists Ping Gao and Daniel Jafferis, both then at Harvard University, and Aron Wall, then at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., discovered a way to prop open wormholes with quantum entanglement—a kind of long-distance connection between quantum entities. The peculiar nature of entanglement allows it to provide the exotic ingredient needed for wormhole stability. And because entanglement is a standard feature of quantum physics, it is relatively easy to create. “It’s really a beautiful theoretical idea,” says Nabil Iqbal, a physicist at Durham University in England, who was not involved in the research. Though the method helps to stabilize wormholes, it can still deliver only microscopic ones. But this new approach has inspired a stream of work that uses the entanglement trick with different sorts of matter in the hopes of bigger, longer-lasting holes.

2017 年末取得了突破性希望，其时哈佛大学的物理学家 Ping Gao 和 Daniel Jafferis 以及新泽西州普林斯顿高级研究所的 Aron Wall 发觉了一种用量子胶葛支持开放虫洞的要领——一种量子实体之间的长间隔毗连。胶葛的特别性子使其可以或许提供虫洞稳健性所需的奇怪身分。而且由于胶葛是量子物理学的尺度特性，以是它相对简单创建。 “这真是一个美好的理论想法，”英国杜伦大学的物理学家 Nabil Iqbal 说，他没有参加这项研究。只管该要领有助于稳健虫洞，但它仍旧只能提供微观虫洞。但这种新要领引发了一系列事情，这些事情利用胶葛本领处置惩罚差别种类的物质，盼望能孕育发生更大、更长期的洞。

One easy-to-picture idea comes from a preprint study by Iqbal and his Durham University colleague Simon Ross. The two tried to see if they could make the Gao-Jafferis-Wall method produce a large wormhole. “We thought it would be interesting, from a sci-fi point of view, to push the limits and see whether this thing could exist,” Iqbal says. Their work showed how special disturbances within the magnetic fields surrounding a black hole could, in theory, generate stable wormholes. Unfortunately, the effect still only forms microscopic wormholes, and Iqbal says it is highly unlikely the situation would occur in reality.

一个易于想象的想法来自 Iqbal 和他的Durham大学同事 Simon Ross 的预印本研究。两人试图看看他们是否可以让高-贾菲里斯-沃尔法孕育发生一个大虫洞。 伊克巴尔说，“从科幻的角度来看，我们以为突破极限并看看这工具是否存在会很有味，”。他们的事情评释，理论上，黑洞四周磁场内的特别扰动是怎样孕育发生稳健的虫洞的。不幸的是，这种效应仍旧只形成微小的虫洞，伊克巴尔说这种情形在实际中产生的大概性很小。

Iqbal and Ross’s work highlights the delicate part of wormhole construction: finding a realistic process that does not require something added from way beyond the bounds of familiar physics. Physicist Juan Maldacena of the Institute for Advanced Study, who had suggested connections between wormholes and entanglement back in 2013, and his collaborator Alexey Milekhin of Princeton University have found a method that could produce large holes. The catch in their approach is that the mysterious dark matter that fills our universe must behave in a particular way, and we may not live in a universe anything like this. “We have a limited toolbox,” Grado-White says. “To get something to look the way we need it, there’s only so many things we can do with that toolbox.”

Iqbal 和 Ross 的事情突出了虫洞构建的玄妙部门：查找一个不必要凌驾熟习物理范畴的工具的实际历程。早在 2013 年，高级研究所的物理学家 Juan Maldacena 就提出了虫洞和胶葛之间的联络，他和他的互助者普林斯顿大学的 Alexey Milekhin 已经找到了一种可以孕育发生大洞的要领。他们要领的题目在于，满盈我们宇宙的神奇暗物质一定以特定的方法运行，而我们大概不会生存在如许的宇宙中。Grado-White 说，“我们的东西箱有限，”。“为了让某些工具看起来像我们必要的模样，我们可以用这个东西箱做许多事变。”

The boom in wormhole research continues. So far, nothing like a made-to-order human-sized wormhole machine looks likely, but the results do show progress. “We’re learning that we can, in fact, build wormholes that stay open using simple quantum effects,” Grado-White says. “For a very long time, we didn’t think these things were possible to build—it turns out that we can.”

虫洞研究的高潮仍在陆续。到现在为止，看起来像定制的人类巨细的虫洞呆板是不行能的，但效果的确表现了希望。 “我们相识到，究竟上，我们可以利用简洁的量子效应建筑连结开放的虫洞，”格拉多-怀特说。 “很长一段时间，我们都以为这些工具是不行能建筑的——究竟证明我们可以。”