Wormholes with a warped extra dimension?

TL;DR

This paper explores how a warped extra dimension can be used to construct higher-dimensional Lorentzian wormholes, analyzing their properties, matter content, and potential signatures in five-dimensional spacetimes.

Contribution

It introduces new static, higher-dimensional wormhole solutions with warped geometries inspired by the Witten bubble, including vacuum and matter-supported cases, and examines their properties and signatures.

Findings

Existence of static, higher-dimensional wormholes with warped geometries.

Vacuum solutions and matter-supported wormholes in dimensions D≥5.

Characteristic geodesic behaviors and signatures in 5D wormholes.

Abstract

We investigate the role of a specifically warped extra dimension in constructing examples of higher dimensional spacetimes representing Lorentzian wormholes. The warping chosen is largely inspired by the well-known non-static Witten bubble of nothing, though our spacetimes are static and geometrically different. Vacuum solutions in $D\geq 5$ dimensions and others (non-asymptotically flat) with `perfectly normal' matter stress energy are interpreted as possible Lorentzian wormholes. Asymptotically flat wormholes in $D\geq 5$ with `exotic matter' and within this class of spacetimes also appear to exist in all dimensions. A wormhole-black hole correspondence via double Wick rotation is revisited and discussed. Finally, geodesic motion as well as the behaviour of geodesic congruences, in the sub-class of five dimensional, warped, vacuum wormhole spacetimes is also briefly analysed, with the aim of obtaining characteristic properties and specific signatures which may help improve our understanding of these geometries.