On the linear instability of the Ellis-Bronnikov-Morris-Thorne wormhole

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the linear instability of the Ellis-Bronnikov-Morris-Thorne wormhole using a simplified derivation, building on and comparing with previous research in the field.

Contribution

It provides a streamlined derivation of the wormhole's linear instability and contextualizes it within existing studies, highlighting its novelty.

Findings

The wormhole is linearly unstable.

The derivation simplifies previous methods.

Comparison with prior work clarifies the instability mechanism.

Abstract

We consider the wormhole of Ellis, Bronnikov, Morris and Thorne (EBMT), arising from Einstein's equations in presence of a phantom scalar field. In this paper we propose a simplified derivation of the linear instability of this system, making comparisons with previous works on this subject (and generalizations) by Gonzalez, Guzman, Sarbach, Bronnikov, Fabris and Zhidenko.