Searching for wormholes with gravitational wave scattering

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method using gravitational wave scattering to detect wormholes, predicting unique echo signatures and chirp behaviors that could be identified by current or future GW telescopes.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to search for wormholes via GW scattering, providing detailed waveform predictions and search range estimates.

Findings

Echo signatures in reflected and transmitted waves.

Unique chirp and anti-chirp behaviors predicted.

Search range estimates for GW detectors.

Abstract

Wormholes bridging distant places of the universe are well-known solutions of general relativity. In particular, traversable wormholes which allow interstellar traveling are also popular in science fiction. However, no hint of their existence has been found yet. In this work, we propose using the gravitational wave (GW) scattering off spherical wormholes to search for their existence. We carefully calculate the reflected and transmitted waveforms with time-independent scattering theory. Our results quantitatively show the echo signatures in the two universes on both sides of the wormhole. In a certain wormhole mass range, the transmitted wave has a unique isolated chirp without an inspiral waveform, and the reflected wave has the anti-chirp behavior, i.e., the missing of the chirping signal. We also calculate the searching range of the current and projected GW telescopes. Our method can be adapted to efficiently calculate the templates to search for wormholes.