Wormhole solutions supported by interacting dark matter and dark energy

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that nonminimal interactions between dark matter and dark energy can produce wormhole solutions by violating the null energy condition in high-density regions, supported by a scalar field.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism where dark matter-dark energy coupling leads to wormholes, with solutions that are regular, static, and spherically symmetric.

Findings

Nonminimal coupling can change sign in high-density regions.

Wormhole solutions are supported by dark matter and a quintessence scalar field.

Null energy condition violation occurs only in the inner regions.

Abstract

We show that the presence of a nonminimal interaction between dark matter and dark energy may lead to a violation of the null energy condition and to the formation of a configuration with nontrivial topology (a wormhole). In this it is assumed that both dark matter and dark energy satisfy the null energy condition, a violation of which takes place only in the inner high-density regions of the configuration. This is achieved by assuming that, in a high-density environment, a nonminimal coupling function changes its sign in comparison with the case where dark matter and dark energy have relatively low densities which are typical for a cosmological background. For this case, we find regular static, spherically symmetric solutions describing wormholes supported by dark matter nonminimally coupled to dark energy in the form of a quintessence scalar field.