Ellis Wormhole vs Morris–Thorne Wormhole
Why compare these models?
“Wormhole” is a broad term. In practice, most educational and visualization work focuses on a small set of classic, mathematically convenient models. The Ellis wormhole often shows up as a particularly simple example; Morris–Thorne is often used as a general traversable-wormhole framework.
Ellis wormhole: what people usually mean
The Ellis wormhole is frequently used because its geometry is simple enough to compute with, yet still shows the iconic “throat” structure. As with all wormhole discussions, it’s important to separate “a solution of equations” from “something known to exist in nature”.
On your site, you already cover this in depth here: The Ellis Wormhole.
Morris–Thorne: a framework for traversable wormholes
Morris–Thorne wormholes are often described in terms of shape functions and conditions that make the geometry traversable (e.g., no horizon at the throat, reasonable tidal forces in an idealized setup, etc.).
The details matter, and different papers choose different functions to get different properties. That flexibility makes it useful for exploration and simulation.
What “exotic matter” means (and what it doesn’t)
In many traversable wormhole constructions, maintaining an open throat requires stress-energy that violates common energy conditions. Popular explanations translate this as “negative energy density” or “exotic matter”.
Two cautions:
- It doesn’t mean “anti-gravity substance” in a sci‑fi sense. It’s about the sign/structure of stress-energy in the model.
- It doesn’t mean we can build one. These are theoretical models; physical realizability is an open question.
How simulations use these models
For an educational simulation, the goal is often: “if spacetime had this geometry, what would light do?” That leads naturally to ray tracing and embedding diagrams.
- Generate a wormhole embedding diagram
- Backwards ray tracing for wormholes
- Three-parameter wormhole model