Editing Wormhole (section)

== Terminology ==
In 1928, German mathematician, philosopher and theoretical physicist [[Hermann Weyl]] proposed a wormhole hypothesis of matter in connection with mass analysis of [[electromagnetic field]] energy;<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Weyl |first1 = H. |title = Feld und Materie |doi = 10.1002/andp.19213701405 |journal = Annalen der Physik |volume = 65 |issue = 14 |year = 1921 |pages=541–563 |bibcode = 1921AnP...370..541W |url = https://zenodo.org/record/1424373 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oZLiqDQGnjgC|editor-last=Scholz |editor-first=Erhard|title=Hermann Weyl's Raum – Zeit – Materie and a General Introduction to His Scientific Work|date=2001|page=199|publisher=Springer|series=Oberwolfach Seminars|volume=30|isbn=9783764364762}}</ref> however, he did not use the term "wormhole" (he spoke of "one-dimensional tubes" instead).<ref name=SEP>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weyl/ "Hermann Weyl"]: entry in the ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''.</ref>

American [[theoretical physicist]] [[John Archibald Wheeler]] (inspired by Weyl's work)<ref name=SEP/> coined the term "wormhole".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blum |first=Alexander S. |date=2022 |title=From Wood Chuck Holes to Worm Holes—A Look into the Notebooks of John A. Wheeler |journal=Annalen der Physik |language=en |volume=534 |issue=8 |pages=2200244 |doi=10.1002/andp.202200244 |issn=1521-3889|doi-access=free |bibcode=2022AnP...53400244B }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Misner |first1=Charles W. |last2=Thorne |first2=Kip S. |last3=Zurek |first3=Wojciech H. |date=2009-04-01 |title=John Wheeler, relativity, and quantum information |url=https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article-abstract/62/4/40/390982/John-Wheeler-relativity-and-quantum?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=Physics Today |volume=62 |issue=4 |pages=40–46 |doi=10.1063/1.3120895 |bibcode=2009PhT....62d..40M |issn=0031-9228}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Novikov |first1=Igor D. |title=Wheeler Wormholes and the Modern Astrophysics |date=2010 |journal=General Relativity and John Archibald Wheeler |pages=39–56 |editor-last=Ciufolini |editor-first=Ignazio |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-90-481-3735-0_4 |access-date=2025-02-20 |place=Dordrecht |publisher=Springer Netherlands |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-90-481-3735-0_4 |isbn=978-90-481-3735-0 |last2=Kardashev |first2=N. S. |last3=Shatskiy |first3=A. A. |volume=367 |bibcode=2010ASSL..367...39N |editor2-last=Matzner |editor2-first=Richard A.}}</ref> In a 1957 paper that he wrote with [[Charles W. Misner]], they write:<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Misner |first1 = C. W. |last2 = Wheeler |first2 = J. A. |title = Classical physics as geometry |doi = 10.1016/0003-4916(57)90049-0 |journal = Ann. Phys. |volume = 2 |issue = 6 |page = 525 |year = 1957 |bibcode = 1957AnPhy...2..525M }}</ref>

{{blockquote|This analysis forces one to consider situations&nbsp;... where there is a net flux of lines of force, through what [[topologist]]s would call "a [[Handle decomposition|handle]]" of the multiply-connected space, and what physicists might perhaps be excused for more vividly terming a "wormhole".|Charles Misner and John Wheeler in ''[[Annals of Physics]]''}}

=== Modern definitions ===
Wormholes have been defined both [[Geometry|''geometrically'']] and [[Topology|''topologically'']]. {{explain|are these definitions equivalent?|date=March 2017}} From a topological point of view, an intra-universe wormhole (a wormhole between two points in the same universe) is a [[Compact space|compact]] region of spacetime whose boundary is topologically trivial, but whose interior is not [[simply connected]]. Formalizing this idea leads to definitions such as the following, taken from Matt Visser's ''Lorentzian Wormholes'' (1996).<ref name="Visser1996" />{{page needed|date=January 2018}}

{{blockquote|If a [[Minkowski space]]time contains a compact region Ω, and if the topology of Ω is of the form Ω ~ S × Σ, where Σ is a three-manifold of the nontrivial topology, whose boundary has the topology of the form ∂Σ ~ S<sup>2</sup>, and if, furthermore, the [[hypersurface]]s Σ are all spacelike, then the region Ω contains a quasi-permanent intrauniverse wormhole.}}

Geometrically, wormholes can be described as regions of spacetime that constrain the incremental deformation of closed surfaces. For example, in Enrico Rodrigo's ''The Physics of Stargates, ''a wormhole is defined informally as: {{blockquote|a region of spacetime containing a "[[world tube]]" (the time evolution of a closed surface) that cannot be [[homotopy|continuously deformed]] (shrunk) to a [[world line]] (the time evolution of a point or observer).}}