Not just SciFi: the Creation of a Magnetic Wormhole

Have you ever watched a Stargate SG-1 episode to wonder and ponder on the plausibility of the wormhole? The consequences of a wormhole, if they really existed, would be to say the least, incredible. Travelling vast distances over a short period of time by using these shortcuts may no longer be a thing relegated to science fiction. In fact, according to some researchers in Spain, from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona’s physics department, the wormhole is no longer far-fetched.

The wormhole, predicted by the Theory of Relativity as the “bridge” through space-time, according to Einstein, has been manufactured in a lab. The magnetic wormhole is able to tunnel a magnetic field through space.

Published in Scientific Reports, the researchers have suggested that “Using matematerials and metasurfaces, our wormhole transfers the magnetic field from one point in space to another through a path that is magnetically undetectable. We experimentally show that the magnetic field from a source at one end of the wormhole appears at the other end as an isolated magnetic monopolar field, creating the illusion of a magnetic field propagating through a tunnel outside the 3D space.”

Though the wormhole can only transport a magnetic field, and not matter, it’s important to recognize this vital discovery. The world of science can now claim that it is able to transport the magnetic field of a physical object; it disappears at one point to reappear at another.

Alvar Sanchez, the lead researcher for this project, said that the magnetic wormhole is an analogy of the bigger, theoretical gravitational ones commonly used in science fiction. “It changes the topology of space, as if the inner region has been magnetically erased from space”, Sanchez explains.

The recently published paper is a massive step in offering mathematical evidence to support the hypothesis that a black hole in our galaxy is potentially a wormhole. If this is true, human navigation may be plausible in the future. Also, the discovery may have possible, more direct plausible applications in medicine, for example the use of the MRI.