Matter traveling through a wormhole

Abstract

We revisit the numerical evolution of Ellis-Bronnikov-Morris-Thorne wormholes, which are constructed with a massless real ghost scalar field. For our simulations, we have developed a new code based on the standard 3+1 foliation of spacetime. We confirm that, for the massless symmetric wormhole, a pulse of regular scalar field causes the wormhole throat to collapse and form an apparent horizon, while a pulse of ghost scalar field can cause the wormhole throat to expand. As a new result, we show that it is possible for a pulse of regular matter to travel through the wormhole and then to send a light signal back before the wormhole collapses. We also evolve pulses of matter traveling through massive asymmetric wormholes, which has not previously been simulated.