Wormholes for Space Travel Created in Lab

[Ray McCarthy]

but I see no reason why you couldn't shoot a cannonade of radio waves through the thing. It would relay messages without the lag.

I can see lots of reasons. It won't stop me writing SF.

For a start, any "tube" structure actually slows radio waves. For two reasons. One, the EM waves propagate slower. Two, the radio waves may have a LONGER path as they "bounce" of the sides.
Light is "slower" in glass than air.
Radio travels about 3/4 of light speed (radio speed in a vacuum) in a coaxial cable. Some cables slow the signal to 2/3rds.
Signals in fibre optic cables are much slower than in air or vacuum.

Unless you have folded space / true wormhole etc, the sending of signalling or objects down a tube is SLOWER than a vacuum. For light or radio (same things) the advantage is range. Free space has the inverse square law. Waveguides, fibre optics, coaxial cable etc increase range 100 to 10,000 times due to conservation of energy, for same power. They also block out extraneous interference (noise) allowing faster data rate or more range (or a compromise combination).

This is all basic physics and thermodynamics. The original article is worthy of a Marvel comic or Star Trek episode for misleading irrelevant nonsense.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Neutron star as gating source. Though I suppose you could renovate a volatile gas giant as a stopgap.
I like the idea of magnetic virtual electron transfer tubes ordering the universe.
Maybe you couldn't stuff a ship with living organisms in at the get go, but I see no reason why you couldn't shoot a cannonade of radio waves through the thing. It would relay messages without the lag.

I suppose a Magnetar would be better choice for any sort of SF story, a more magnetized Neutron Star - generally spinning more slowly and resulting in a higher magnetic field output. Of course allowance would need to be made for the immense tidal forces anywhere near any such "gate".

As an energy source they are as close to Infinite energy as a mouse on a wheel. The idea being that to create a wormhole capable of spacetime distortions mass can travel along (which in essence we could just say FTL) you need the entire energy output of the entire universe - assuming it is unbounded and spatially infinite and even then you still don't have enough energy. What is infinity minus infinity or infinity plus infinity - still infinity.

Look we have all seen Event Horizon! We do not want to get out of a gravity well where the spatial distortion is so extreme all world lines lead inwards!

 

[Mad Alice]

I can see lots of reasons. It won't stop me writing SF.

For a start, any "tube" structure actually slows radio waves. For two reasons. One, the EM waves propagate slower. Two, the radio waves may have a LONGER path as they "bounce" of the sides.
Light is "slower" in glass than air.
Radio travels about 3/4 of light speed (radio speed in a vacuum) in a coaxial cable. Some cables slow the signal to 2/3rds.
Signals in fibre optic cables are much slower than in air or vacuum.

Unless you have folded space / true wormhole etc, the sending of signalling or objects down a tube is SLOWER than a vacuum. For light or radio (same things) the advantage is range. Free space has the inverse square law. Waveguides, fibre optics, coaxial cable etc increase range 100 to 10,000 times due to conservation of energy, for same power. They also block out extraneous interference (noise) allowing faster data rate or more range.

I was speaking of a bullhorn effect. In combination with echoing. Directed waveforms with limiters such as mountain peaks to bounce off of actually possess more strength and therefore energy then those allowed to randomly disperse.
The bounce actually increases the energy available. The tube would act as a resonance chamber.
It would vibrate adding energy to the wave forms. With a triangular field of displacement upon the mini tubes, the signal collects together and returns faster and louder.
Whisper in the mountains and it echoes back as a shout. Same sort of thing.
By the way, thinking of space as an empty vacuum that has no influencing factors upon magnetic wave forms or particle dispersement, would only work outside of the solar system, in the areas past the kuiper belt, barring any other spatial matter convergences unknown by us at present.
There has been identified a magnetic corona present in that area as well as the asteroids and comets and mini planets. A signal must fight past all that to get to the noninterference vacuum.
And without the containment of the waveform, the wave would be expanded in dimensions until it is slow and losing energy with every up and down curve. With any resistance at that point, where it would meet the most resistance, it would dissipate.
Maybe there would not be appreciable atmosphere to affect it, but there would be the sun and gas giants magnetic corona.
Think of a crystal radio. Now make it a virtual magnetic crystal radio. You wouldn't need the actual crystal only the vibratory medium.
Tiny bits of an involved message reassembled by all the mini transfer tubes.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

The bounce actually increases the energy available.

No, some is lost on ANY reflection (bounce). It's a passive system. Otherwise you have invented free energy, perpetual motion and proved Thermodynamics wrong. You CAN focus a signal and thus lose less. See below.

There is no free lunch.

Think of a crystal radio. Now make it a virtual magnetic crystal radio.

A tuned circuit connected to an aerial system (which converts Electromagnetic waves (EM Waves) to Electricity) with a semiconductor rectifier (of ANY kind) to convert AM RF to Audio frequency for the earphone.

A short wire aerial will not sense local magnetic fields, but distant or local EM waves and local Electric fields.
A loop aerial can be immune to local Electric fields (thus less sensitive to local interfernce than say a whip or car aerial on Medium wave), but is very sensitive to local magnetic fields and distant or local EM waves.

Now make it a virtual magnetic crystal radio

What is that meaning? Any crystal radio with a loop aerial picks up magnetic fields. A "virtual" anything isn't a physical thing.

Only EM waves propagate any distance, and best in a vacuum. Pure Electric or Pure Magnetic fields are local without a special medium.

A tube of suitable materials CAN transport EM waves, Electric current or Magnetic Flux. But slower than a vacuum. No such device is as efficient as waveguide for microwave EM waves. A fibre is less efficient, but very very much cheaper, and needs IR or visible EM waves. A pair of wires or coaxial cable works for Electric current / signals. If super conducting, then the distance can be immense. A tube for magnetic flux (described in original article) is least efficient and most costly way to transport a signal. Electricity is better. EM Waves better still. ANY "tube" to concentrate the signal (EM waves, Electric current or Magneti Flux) slows the transmission compared to a vacuum and has higher loss. That's why in a vacuum, the best scheme is a pair of parabolic dishes (one each end), to concentrate the signal. Then the Radio, IR or visible Light loss is related inversely to cube of frequency or square of diameter of dish. The speed is then maximum, "c" the speed of light in a vacuum.

The ONLY use for a "magnetic" signal "tube" is in a device, a machine, a gadget. Other than a hypothetical wormhole (which this experiment isn't), the best interstellar signalling method is a pair of very large parabolic dishes pointing at each other. Or a phased array of smaller dishes, less efficient, but a load of small dishes are very much cheaper to make and there is a lower limit to how large a single steerable dish can be made.