2.1. Elliptical Space
Luminosity distances calculated with the use of the metric coefficient
in the de Sitter metric are not consistent with observations because here the theoretical relationship between luminosity distances and redshifts is nonlinear (quadratic) near the origin. At the same time, observational data show a strictly linear relationship between luminosity distances and redshifts at low redshifts.
Notwithstanding, one can avoid nonlinearity by moving the origin of the coordinate system from the observer point (
o) to the antipodal point (
a):
[compare with the diagram (
7)]. In this coordinate system, distances are calculated as in the normal coordinate system associated with an observer. Here,
is the radial distance between the antipodal point (
a) and the source location (
s). In order to use the Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric in the calculations, let us bring to bear the main property of elliptic space, the connectivity between its antipodal points (see below). Our goal is to calculate the source-to-observer distance (
) in the SdS metric and compare it with the redshift
z of the source. Using the above notations, we obtain the distance between the observer and his antipodal point in the form
In this configuration, the center of symmetry of the SdS metric is located at the observer’s antipodal point (
a). From the observer’s perspective, this point looks like a distant sphere with a large (or infinite) radius. It encompasses the entire celestial sphere (
steradian) around the observer. In this way, the SdS metric becomes spherically symmetric and isotropic for any arbitrary point in space, provided that the antipodal points are endowed with this metric.
Endowing an elliptical space with the SdS metric is possible if the mathematical identification of distant points is materialised through their physical connectivity by means of a structure with a metric that is an exact solution of Einstein’s field equations. Such an exact solution to the field equations was found in 1935 by Einstein and Rosen [
8]. This solution interconnects two different spaces or two different regions of the same space. Therefore, it was called the Einstein-Rosen bridge, but more often it is called the "wormhole" [
9]. In the simplest case, the exterior space around a wormhole is described by the Schwarzschild metric or by the Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric (if space has a curvature of
). In both metrics, the redshift is gravitational by its nature, so it can be calculated using the metric coefficient (
9). Such a calculation within the scheme (
11) makes it possible to obtain theoretical cosmological redshifts of distant sources.
As shown by Morris, Thorne, and Yurtsever [
10], it is most likely that wormholes are microscopic objects with dimensions of the order of the Planck-Wheeler length,
cm. This determines the scale of the difference between the idealised (mathematical) elliptical space and its physical counterpart, the space whose antipodal regions are connected through microscopic Einstein-Rosen wormholes.
There is a widespread belief that wormholes are unstable and that even the slightest disturbance associated with the passage of particles of matter or radiation through their throats destroys them. However, most publications on the stability or instability of wormholes are based on the concept of their traversability [
12,
13,
14]. Other publications discuss this topic either in terms of exotic theories of gravity [
15], or within the framework of the theory of quantum gravity [
16], which does not yet exist. Therefore, such publications can be disregarded.
In classical general relativity, wormholes are the smallest possible objects. As such, they are not traversable and therefore they are stable by definition. Moreover, according to the ideas of Einstein, Rosen, and Wheeler, the answer to the question of the relationship between the discrete (particles of matter) and the continuous (space) lies precisely in the possibility of the existence of microscopic structures within the framework of general relativity. Thus, the question of where matter particles and radiation can come from at all is clarified by the possibility of the existence of microscopic wormholes, proved by Einstein and Rosen.
A static wormhole is described by the Schwarzschild metric (
1). But our goal here is to estimate the curvature of space
, which is encoded in the Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric (
8). Therefore, we use this metric, with its free parameter of
R to be evaluated using observations.
The observer is located near one of the throats of the wormhole (hereinafter referred to as the near throat), and the observed source is somewhere between the observer and the far throat of the observer’s antipodal point. According to our choice of coordinate system, any distance is now measured from the origin of that coordinate system (
a) to the source (
) or to the observer (
), with the origin being the large antipodal sphere surrounding the observer. Our goal is to find the relationship between the redshift of the source (
z) and the distance from the source to the observer:
Any point slightly offset from the observer’s location corresponds to a slightly offset antipodal sphere, virtually indistinguishable from the observer’s antipodal sphere because of the enormous distance . Since each antipodal sphere has a gravitational radius associated with it, the antipodal spheres of neighbouring points form a collective Schwarzschild horizon with a radius , which corresponds to some (quite large from the observer’s point of view) neighbourhood around the observer.
2.2. Redshift-Distance Relationship
In our scheme (
11) there are two unknown distances,
and
. The latter can be replaced by the distance from the source to the observer (
13):
. The gravitational radius
and the global radius of curvature
R are also unknown. Thus, in total, our model has three free parameters:
,
and
R, which should be determined from observations.
Both the source and the observer are in the SdS metric (
8) with its redshift-defining coefficient (
9). Thus, the redshift of the source with respect to the observer is
or, taking into account (
9),
At this point, we can set the parameter
as the distance unit, thus using it as the unit of distance for our measurements:
. Later, this parameter can be translated into some generally accepted units of distance measurement, for example, in light years or megaparsecs. Thus,
From (
13)
which gives
Then the distance from the source to the observer is equal to
which is a recursive expression [in units
] to find the distance from the source to the observer as a function of the source redshift. To get the luminosity distance to the source, the expression (
19) should be multiplied by the scaling factor
:
with one of the
-factors accounting for the loss of luminosity due to the cosmological redshift
z, as well as for the lower rate at which the photons reach the observer because of the cosmological time dilatation due to the non-unit metric coefficient
. The other
-factor takes into account the distortion of the photon’s trajectory (coefficient
in the Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric. The expression (
20) can be used to determine the free parameters of our model by comparing the theoretical distance moduli
(in stellar magnitudes) with the distance moduli obtained from observations. The numerical coefficients in (
21) correspond to the luminosity distances
, expressed in Mpc.
2.3. Observational Data
The formulae (
19) - (
21) describe the theoretical relationship between distances to remote sources and redshifts. Distances are expressed as photometric properties of sources. Thus, the assessment of theoretical parameters should be based on observational photometric data for a wide range of cosmological redshifts. One of the most accurate sets of observational data of this kind is the photometric catalogue
Pantheon+ [
19,
20], which contains data on 1701 Type Ia supernovae in the redshift range of
.
Yet, this range of redshifts is not wide enough to distinguish cosmological models, since differences between the models are manifested significant only for redshifts
. The range of redshifts can be expanded by using additional observational data from the gamma-ray burst (GRB) catalogue compiled by Amati et al. [
17]. This catalogue contains 193 moduli of gamma-ray burst distances
, calculated and calibrated using the Amati relation [
18]. The range of redshifts covered by this catalogue,
, is significantly wider than in the case of Type Ia supernovae.
The data are much noisier than , and they are also slightly biased systematically within the redshift range , where all cosmological models and data must coincide. This bias is calculated to be [mag] by minimising the Pearson’s for 27 GRBs within the mentioned redshift range (the GRB data are corrected for this bias).