Posted on 05/30/2026 8:02:29 PM PDT by Red Badger
The concept of the Einstein-Rosen bridge is often understood as a cosmic shortcut, akin to a tunnel that links distant points in spacetime.
While that image makes for compelling science fiction, a new study shows that it does not match the actual physics behind this concept. Recent research suggests that the original bridge theory was not a wormhole but a mathematical feature of how time is structured. This new realization could help solve a persistent problem in physics.
The study, led by Professor Enrique Gaztañaga from the University of Portsmouth, along with K. Sravan Kumar and João Marto, was published in Classical and Quantum Gravity. The researchers suggest that the bridge functions as a mathematical link between two directions of time, one going forward and the other going backward.
Einstein and Rosen’s Original Concept
Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen never directly proposed a shortcut through space in their original 1935 theory. Instead, they were studying how quantum fields behave under conditions of extreme gravity. To keep their equations consistent, they described a link between two copies of spacetime that are mirror images of each other.
The interpretation of a wormhole came much later. The bridge in the original concept collapses too quickly for anything to travel through it, making it unusable as a passage. Despite this, the idea of a literal tunnel still became popular.
Gaztañaga and his team reexamined the original idea. They do not view the bridge as a path through space, but as a mechanism of how quantum mechanics works in curved spacetime. Their findings suggest that to fully describe what happens near black holes, we need to consider both directions of time, not just the forward-moving one that we experience.
Solving the Information Paradox
This discovery is significant for one of physics’ biggest puzzles, known as the black hole information paradox. In 1974, Stephen Hawking demonstrated that black holes slowly radiate heat and can eventually evaporate, apparently destroying all information about the matter that fell into them. This directly goes against the belief in quantum mechanics that information cannot be destroyed.
The researchers say the paradox arises only when we think of black holes in terms of a single direction of time. When we include both directions in the quantum picture, information persists at the event horizon rather than disappearing. It continues evolving in the time-reversed component of the quantum state. We cannot see this from our perspective, but the information is still there.
Before the Big Bang
The implications for this extend beyond black holes. If time has two mirrored directions at the quantum level, the Big Bang might not be the absolute beginning. It could instead represent a quantum change from a shrinking universe to a growing one, each with its own direction of time. In this case, our universe could be inside a black hole that formed in an even larger cosmos.
The researchers point to a possible clue from observations. The cosmic microwave background displays a persistent imbalance that standard models struggle to explain. Models with mirrored quantum components fit the observational data better, but the researchers are careful to note that they still do not confirm the theory.
Gaztañaga’s team does not intend for the study to replace Einstein’s theory of relativity or standard quantum mechanics. They instead propose that both ideas gain strength when we take the full, time-balanced structure of quantum mechanics seriously. What the Einstein-Rosen bridge may really describe is not a shortcut between galaxies but a window into the hidden structure of time itself.
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Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a data analytics certification. His work focuses on breaking scientific developments, with an emphasis on emerging biology, cognitive neuroscience, and archaeological discoveries.
They just killed every science fiction novel, TV show and movie that uses worm holes as a plot device!....................
I think I just sprained my brain reading that...
CC
Time at the event horizon stands still................
I keep telling people that, but nobody believes me.
(or not, nyuk nyuk)
Same here. What I managed to leach out of it was that these physicists propose the Einstein-Rosen bridge theory wasn't meant to describe or propose something as physical as an actual wormhole, but was formulated for it's explanatory usefulness to describe how quantum mechanics works.
Gaztañaga and his team reexamined the original idea. They do not view the bridge as a path through space, but as a mechanism of how quantum mechanics works in curved spacetime. Their findings suggest that to fully describe what happens near black holes, we need to consider both directions of time, not just the forward-moving one that we experience.
Einstein and Hawking are clowns. Newton is still the King of Physics.
I tend to agree.
The first thing I thought about when reading this was the Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser experiment. Yes, that’s a real thing.
Einstein was among the very, very top, however.
And that said, I'll agree with you that Newton is/was the king of physics (and I'll throw in mathematics). The finest thinker in history, I do suspect.
May the m.a * be with you.
.
*(Force, of course)
I found wormholes in my garden
I found wormholes in my tomatoes...............
It’s math. They didn’t “discover” anything. I propose that mathematical prognosticators accompany all their “discoveries” with a physical proof of the real existence of their mathematical models. If they can’t design a physical proof, file their discoveries in the “this could be” confabulation file, until someone could prove that the phenomena actually exists and behaves as the model suggests.
IMHO
Whosville is REAL!
We’re Here!
We’re Here!
WE’RE HERE!!!!
Earth!
Good idea, except all models and theories about reality are simplifications, and are therefore certain to be wrong at some level. No complete proof is ever possible, just evidence that a model sometimes works to a useful level. It's amazing how often physicists get crazy lost in mathematics, an eternal playground of God, and think math can do anything more than model reality. The fact that physics formulas run perfectly in reverse is the first clue they are missing something big about how the universe really works. And math is full of infinities, like the model of black holes, and all the numbers between 1 and 2, however no infinities have ever been found in the real world, anywhere. That is big clue number two.
Not only that, but the event horizon stands still at the time.
🙂😊😁😀😃😆😅😂🤣
Wait a minute now! What about the ones Jodie Foster and Dave Bowman went through?
For some reason, I don’t put much stock in what a journalist with a non technical education says about Einstein’s analyses.
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