Dark energy, wormholes, and the Big Rip

TL;DR

This paper investigates the evolution of wormholes in a universe heading towards the Big Rip, showing they become comoving with cosmic fluid and do not engulf the universe prematurely, contrary to previous claims.

Contribution

It introduces two models of wormhole accretion in a Big Rip universe and clarifies their asymptotic behavior, challenging prior assertions about wormhole dominance.

Findings

Wormholes become asymptotically comoving with the cosmic fluid.

The universe's future evolution remains fully causal.

Wormholes do not overtake the universe before the Big Rip.

Abstract

The time evolution of a wormhole in a Friedmann universe approaching the Big Rip is studied. The wormhole is modeled by a thin spherical shell accreting the superquintessence fluid - two different models are presented. Contrary to recent claims that the wormhole overtakes the expansion of the universe and engulfs it before the Big Rip is reached, it is found that the wormhole becomes asymptotically comoving with the cosmic fluid and the future evolution of the universe is fully causal.