General Relativistic magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of accretion flows through traversable wormholes

TL;DR

This paper introduces the first GRMHD simulations of plasma accretion onto traversable wormholes, revealing unique behaviors that differ significantly from black hole accretion, including outflows without traditional accretion signatures.

Contribution

It provides the first dynamical model of plasma flow through traversable wormholes using GRMHD simulations, highlighting novel accretion behaviors distinct from black holes.

Findings

Wormhole accretion forms a hot, rotating cloud at the throat.

Accretion flows produce outflows without typical black hole jet signatures.

Wormholes exhibit different plasma dynamics compared to black holes.

Abstract

We present the first dynamical model of plasma accretion onto traversable wormholes by performing General Relativistic magneto-hydrodynamical (GRMHD) simulations of the flow on both sides of the wormhole. We evolve the ideal MHD equations on a wormhole spacetime described by the spherically symmetric Simpson--Visser metric. The disk is initialized on one side of the wormhole and accretes onto the throat driven by the magneto-rotational instability (MRI). We show that the inflowing plasma quickly settles in the throat and forms a hot, rotating cloud. The wormhole cloud acts as an engine in which gas coming from one side accumulates at the center, dissipates energy, and powers a mildly relativistic thermal wind toward the other side. Our novel predictions show that accreting wormholes behave very differently from black holes (BHs) in astrophysical environments. In particular, one mouth presents outflows without accretion signatures, contradicting the jet-disk symbiotic relation that holds for black holes.