Traversable wormholes supported by dark gravity

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent research on traversable wormholes in modified gravity theories, highlighting how higher order curvature terms can support wormholes without violating energy conditions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of how modified gravity theories enable traversable wormholes supported by normal matter, differing from general relativity.

Findings

Higher order curvature terms support wormholes without exotic matter

Modified gravity allows satisfying energy conditions in wormhole solutions

Recent developments expand understanding of wormhole physics in alternative theories

Abstract

A fundamental property in wormhole physics is the flaring-out condition of the throat, which through the Einstein field equation entails the violation of the null energy condition. In the context of modified theories of gravity, it has also been shown that the normal matter can be imposed to satisfy the energy conditions, and it is the higher order curvature terms, interpreted as a gravitational fluid, that sustain these non-standard wormhole geometries, fundamentally different from their counterparts in general relativity. We review recent work in wormhole physics in the context of modified theories of gravity.