In general relativity, traversable wormholes are possible provided they do not represent shortcuts in the spacetime. Einstein equations, together with the achronal averaged null energy condition, demand to take longer for an observer to go through the wormhole than through the ambient space. This forbids wormholes from connecting two distant regions in the space. The situation is different when higher-curvature corrections are considered. Here, we construct a traversable wormhole solution connecting two asymptotically flat regions, otherwise disconnected. This geometry is an electrovacuum solution to the Lovelock theory of gravity coupled to an Abelian gauge field. The electric flux suffices to support the wormhole throat and to stabilize the solution. In fact, we show that, in contrast to other wormhole solutions previously found in this theory, the one constructed here turns out to be stable under scalar perturbations. We also consider wormholes in anti–de Sitter (AdS). We present a protection argument showing that, while stable traversable wormholes connecting two asymptotically locally ${\mathrm{AdS}}_5$ spaces do exist in the higher-curvature theory, the region of the parameter space where such solutions are admitted lies outside the causality bounds coming from $\mathrm{AdS}/\mathrm{CFT}$.

• Received 11 June 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.044011

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Published by the American Physical Society