Wormholes supported by a phantom energy

Abstract

We extend the notion of phantom energy--which is generally accepted for homogeneously distributed matter with $w<-1$ in the universe--on inhomogeneous spherically symmetric spacetime configurations. A spherically symmetric distribution of phantom energy is shown to be able to support the existence of static wormholes. We find an exact solution describing a static spherically symmetric wormhole with phantom energy and show that a spatial distribution of the phantom energy is mainly restricted by the vicinity of the wormhole&#39;s throat. The maximal size of the spherical region, surrounding the throat and containing the most part of the phantom energy, depends on the equation-of-state parameter $w$ and cannot exceed some upper limit.