Wormhole solutions supported by interacting dark matter and dark energy

Abstract

We show that the presence of a nonminimal interaction between dark matter and dark energy may lead to a violation of the null energy condition and to the formation of a configuration with nontrivial topology (a wormhole). In this it is assumed that both dark matter and dark energy satisfy the null energy condition, a violation of which takes place only in the inner high-density regions of the configuration. This is achieved by assuming that, in a high-density environment, a nonminimal coupling function changes its sign in comparison with the case where dark matter and dark energy have relatively low densities which are typical for a cosmological background. For this case, we find regular static, spherically symmetric solutions describing wormholes supported by dark matter nonminimally coupled to dark energy in the form of a quintessence scalar field.