Wormholes in exponential f(R, T) gravity

Abstract

Alternative gravity is nowadays an extremely important tool to address some persistent observational issues, such as the dark sector of the universe. They can also be applied to stellar astrophysics, leading to outcomes one step ahead of those obtained through General Relativity. In the present article we test a novel f(R, T) gravity model within the physics and geometry of wormholes. The f(R, T) gravity is a reputed alternative gravity theory in which the Ricci scalar R in the Einstein-Hilbert gravitational lagrangian is replaced by a general function of R and T, namely f(R, T), with T representing the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. We propose, for the first time in the literature, an exponential form for the dependence of the theory on T. We derive the field equations as well as the non-continuity equation and solve those to wormhole metric and energy-momentum tensor. The importance of applying alternative gravity to wormholes is that through these theories it might be possible to obtain wormhole solutions satisfying the energy conditions, departing from General Relativity well-known outcomes. In this article, we indeed show that it is possible to obtain wormhole solutions satisfying the energy conditions in the exponential f(R, T) gravity. Naturally, there is still a lot to do with this model, as cosmological, galactical and stellar astrophysics applications, and the reader is strongly encouraged to do so, but, anyhow, one can see the present outcomes as a good indicative for the theory.