Wormhole geometries supported by quark matter at ultra-high densities

Abstract

A fundamental ingredient in wormhole physics is the presence of exotic matter, which involves the violation of the null energy condition (NEC). In this context, we investigate the possibility that wormholes could be supported by quark matter at extreme densities. Theoretical and experimental investigations of the structure of baryons show that strange quark matter, consisting of the u, d and s quarks, is the most energetically favorable state of baryonic matter. Moreover, at ultra-high densities, quark matter may exist in a variety of superconducting states, namely, the Color–Flavor-Locked (CFL) phase. Motivated by these theoretical models, we explore the conditions under which wormhole geometries may be supported by the equations of state (EOS) considered in the theoretical investigations of quark–gluon interactions. For the description of the normal quark matter, we adopt the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) bag model EOS, while the color superconducting quark phases are described by a first-order approximation of the free energy. By assuming specific forms for the bag and gap functions, several wormhole models are obtained for both normal and superconducting quark matter. The effects of the presence of an electrical charge are also taken into account.