No. Physicists believe (something like) that if try to model “particles” as geometric structures using the field equations, there are solutions to the equations—for a universe that is an idealised vacuum with no matter (i.e. not our universe)—in which the universe appears to have two outsides joined by a “throat” (aka an Einstein–Rosen bridge).
Or something like that. The actual idea is almost impossible to understand if you don’t already know how to solve the field equations (and I don’t).
The takeaway is that, gushing physicists notwithstanding, Einstein–Rosen bridges occur in idealised mathematics not in reality.
Q: I mean, do they expect to find one someday?
No. The original Einstein–Rosen bridge gives no reason to think such structures exist in our universe. They cannot exist in a universe with matter.
Q: Or do physicists simply agree that wormholes can't be ruled out, because nothing we know about the laws of physics prohibits their existence?
Apart from offering a false dichotomy that doesn’t include the actual answer, the laws of physics are invented by humans to describe patterns of experience when interacting with the world. These “laws” are descriptive, not prescriptive.
Our laws cannot “prohibit” anything. If something “prohibited” (i.e. not predicted by the current model) happens, we have no option but to change the law! This is how we got general relativity in the first place, i.e. the precession of the orbit of Mercury was “prohibited” by Newton’s laws of motion and so those laws were superseded.
Thinking about this question philosophically, let’s first try to understand: What is mathematics? While there is no conventional definition of the word, according to the traditional context, mathematics is simply an abstract system with which to analyse anything that follows a set of rules.
Thinking about it historically, looking at how we had developed this set of rules as human beings, different societies each came up with the same rules as each other, at similar times. Ancient civilisations - Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, etc. had all developed systems of mathematics which discovered different things, but the mutual things they did discover, they had mostly agreed on. While their representations may not have been identical, the concepts were the same.
Even looking at more recent history, the development of Calculus cannot even be attributed to one individual - Newton and Leibniz are both treated as having independently discovered this then-new system of mathematics.
Using this line of thought, we can say that there may be things that they understand that we don’t, and similarly in the other direction, and our notations for mutually understood ideas may not be the same, but living within the same universe, which follows the same natural laws, which can be obtained using the same logic, our laws of mathematics are most likely to be the same as the alien civilisation’s.
Edit: I have been asked to elaborate on whether an alien civilisation would necessarily use ten digits - 0 through 9. Absolutely not. There is nothing sacred about 0 through 9. A computer uses 0 or 1, better known as Binary. The Babylonians used a picture representation for 0 to 59.
For a more abstract example that cannot be used for a full basis of arithmetic, but to be stated purely as food for thought: 24 hour time is in 60 minutes and 60 seconds. The calendar has 365 days per year, 366 in years that are multiples of 4, 365 in multiples of 100, and 366 in multiples of 400.
What do each of these systems have in common? For the ones that we can use as a full basis of arithmetic, each place has a 0, and they all have same count. We use a 10 digit system because some of our ancestors decided to do so because we have 10 fingers, which we just so happen to call our digits, and it just stuck. An alien civilisation may not have a number system exactly like ours, but they would most definitely have a number system, which would most likely be able to do the same things as ours.
Спасибо, очень интересно!
No. Physicists believe (something like) that if try to model “particles” as geometric structures using the field equations, there are solutions to the equations—for a universe that is an idealised vacuum with no matter (i.e. not our universe)—in which the universe appears to have two outsides joined by a “throat” (aka an Einstein–Rosen bridge).
Or something like that. The actual idea is almost impossible to understand if you don’t already know how to solve the field equations (and I don’t).
The takeaway is that, gushing physicists notwithstanding, Einstein–Rosen bridges occur in idealised mathematics not in reality.
Q: I mean, do they expect to find one someday?
No. The original Einstein–Rosen bridge gives no reason to think such structures exist in our universe. They cannot exist in a universe with matter.
Q: Or do physicists simply agree that wormholes can't be ruled out, because nothing we know about the laws of physics prohibits their existence?
Apart from offering a false dichotomy that doesn’t include the actual answer, the laws of physics are invented by humans to describe patterns of experience when interacting with the world. These “laws” are descriptive, not prescriptive.
Our laws cannot “prohibit” anything. If something “prohibited” (i.e. not predicted by the current model) happens, we have no option but to change the law! This is how we got general relativity in the first place, i.e. the precession of the orbit of Mercury was “prohibited” by Newton’s laws of motion and so those laws were superseded.
Another great article, please keep them coming! Thankyou
Thinking about this question philosophically, let’s first try to understand: What is mathematics? While there is no conventional definition of the word, according to the traditional context, mathematics is simply an abstract system with which to analyse anything that follows a set of rules.
Thinking about it historically, looking at how we had developed this set of rules as human beings, different societies each came up with the same rules as each other, at similar times. Ancient civilisations - Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, etc. had all developed systems of mathematics which discovered different things, but the mutual things they did discover, they had mostly agreed on. While their representations may not have been identical, the concepts were the same.
Even looking at more recent history, the development of Calculus cannot even be attributed to one individual - Newton and Leibniz are both treated as having independently discovered this then-new system of mathematics.
Using this line of thought, we can say that there may be things that they understand that we don’t, and similarly in the other direction, and our notations for mutually understood ideas may not be the same, but living within the same universe, which follows the same natural laws, which can be obtained using the same logic, our laws of mathematics are most likely to be the same as the alien civilisation’s.
Edit: I have been asked to elaborate on whether an alien civilisation would necessarily use ten digits - 0 through 9. Absolutely not. There is nothing sacred about 0 through 9. A computer uses 0 or 1, better known as Binary. The Babylonians used a picture representation for 0 to 59.
For a more abstract example that cannot be used for a full basis of arithmetic, but to be stated purely as food for thought: 24 hour time is in 60 minutes and 60 seconds. The calendar has 365 days per year, 366 in years that are multiples of 4, 365 in multiples of 100, and 366 in multiples of 400.
What do each of these systems have in common? For the ones that we can use as a full basis of arithmetic, each place has a 0, and they all have same count. We use a 10 digit system because some of our ancestors decided to do so because we have 10 fingers, which we just so happen to call our digits, and it just stuck. An alien civilisation may not have a number system exactly like ours, but they would most definitely have a number system, which would most likely be able to do the same things as ours.