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Stephen Hawking, also has proposed an idea of wormholes that treats the entire universe as a quantum particle. As a wavefunction in quantum mechanics describes the different potential states of a particle, this wave function would describe a set of all possible universes. This wavefunction would be most highly concentrated around our own universe. We live in this universe because it has the largest probability in the wave function.
Stephen Hawking, also has proposed an idea of wormholes that treats the entire universe as a quantum particle. As a wavefunction in quantum mechanics describes the different potential states of a particle, this wave function would describe a set of all possible universes. This wavefunction would be most highly concentrated around our own universe. We live in this universe because it has the largest probability in the wave function. That being said, there could be transition between these universes, via wormhole tunneling, since there is a small probability that the wave function prefers a neighboring universe. Thus, Hawking’s wormholes would begin with an infinite set of parallel universes. These infinite number of parallel universes would coexist with one another. The universe is no longer “all that exists” it is “all that can exist”. Hawking’s idea is that these universes can collide and there can even be wormholes that develop and link these parallel universes. The size of the Hawking wormhole that connects these parallel universe by means of a wave function is very small. They will be about the size of the Planck length (10^-35 meters). This is far too small for human travel. It would also take longer than life of the universe for this kind of quantum transition to occur. However, it is still possible, just unlikely.
Our universe could exist in an infinite series of parallel universes. These universes could be connected by a web of wormholes. Theoretically, it could be possible to travel between these wormholes. However, it is very unlikely.
Hawking said: “Wormholes, if they exist, would be ideal for rapid space travel. You might go through a wormhole to the other side of the galaxy and be back in time for dinner.”
Sidney Coleman, a theoretical physicist, is optimistic that wormhole theories could be verified in the somewhat near future.
In general relativity, the matter-energy content of an object, will determine the curvature of the surrounding spacetime. Einstein asked the question: can the vacuum of empty space contain energy? This vacuum energy is known as the cosmological constant. Einstein, who found it unappealing, tried to find ways to work around including it in his equations, however, he couldn't. In fact, Einstein, found that his equations worked for an expanding universe. However, the accepted view at the time was for a static universe. Thus, Einstein introduced a small cosmological constant to balance it out.
We know today, that the cosmological constant is very close to zero. However, this problem came onto the scene again, this time, in particle physics. In the Standard Model, when symmetries are broken, the vacuum should gain some significant amount of energy. This amount of energy should be about 10^100 times the amount that we observe in experiment. This is the prediction of a large vacuum energy when symmetry is broken. This is the biggest divergence from experiment to theory in physics. It is a massive discrepancy.
The idea behind Sidney Coleman's wormholes, is that they can cancel these unwanted contributions to the vacuum energy. Coleman calculated that if we truly live in one of any infinite number of universes, connected by an interconnected web of Planck length-sized wormholes, then, the wavefunction of the universe would prefer to have a cosmological constant of zero. He found that the reason that the cosmological constant was zero, is because, that is the most probable outcome. This prediction would also help to determine the values of fundamental constants in the universe.
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