Simple Perturbatively Traversable Wormholes from Bulk Fermions

Abstract: A new class of traversable wormholes was recently constructed which relies only on local bulk dynamics rather than an explicit coupling between distinct boundaries. Here we begin with a four-dimensional Weyl fermion field of any mass $m$ propagating on a classical background defined by a ${\mathbb Z}_2$ quotient of (rotating) BTZ $\times \, S^1$. This setup allows one to compute the fermion stress-energy tensor exactly. For appropriate boundary conditions around a non-contractible curve, perturbative back-reaction at any $m$ renders the associated wormhole traversable and suggests it can become eternally traversable at the limit where the background becomes extremal. A key technical step is the proper formulation of the method of images for fermions in curved spacetime. We find the stress-energy of spinor fields to have important kinematic differences from that of scalar fields, typically causing the sign of the integrated null stress-energy (and thus in many cases the sign of the time delay/advance) to vary around the throat of the wormhole. Similar effects may arise for higher-spin fields.