[floatingslowly]

Originally Posted by atari 2600

science-fiction

not so much.

Higgs boson

http://people.cornell.edu/pages/jag8/higgsy.html

The initial point of emergence (the "Big Bang") of an energized but gravitationally balanced mix of metric spacetime and symmetric, elementary, "leptonic" particle-antiparticle pairs of total energy and charge = 0 ("Yin-Yang" symmetry), derives its energy from the symmetry loss occasioned by its separation from the Multiverse. The Multiverse is the ultimate symmetry condition of unmanifest, undefined, yet energetic reality; the lower symmetry of our Cosmos is due to the specification of its "life-friendly" physical constants. This initial, energized but balanced state (H3 Planck Era) is entropically unstable and decays (symmetrically) to the H2 Leptoquark Era, then (asymmetrically) to the H1 Hyperon Era, and finally (mostly symmetrically) to the E/M ground state (Atomic Era) we currently occupy. Each state (except the ground state) is scaled by a Higgs boson and transformed to the next lower state by its own family of IVBs, representative of the energy density of that state. The ground state is scaled by the spacetime metric and the electromagnetic constant c, and other "given" physical constants such as G, e, and h. The whole cascade decay is driven by entropy (the expansion and cooling of the Cosmos) and the intrinsic motion of light (initially contained within the metric as an expansive, entropic pressure). The cascade in all its stages is regulated by energy and symmetry conservation.

Einstein-Rosen Bridge

http://library.thinkquest.org/27930/wormhole.htm

The relativistic description of black holes requires wormholes at their centers. These wormholes, called Einstein-Rosen bridges after Einstein and his collaborator Nathan Rosen, seem to connect the center of a black hole with a mirror universe on the "other side" of spacetime. At first, the bridge was considered a mathematical oddity, but nothing more. It was essential for the internal consistency of the Schwarzschild solution to Einstein's equations, which was the first relativistic solution involving black holes. However, the wormhole could not be traversed because the center of a black hole is a singularity, a point of infinite spacetime curvature, where the gravity would also be infinite and all matter would be crushed to its most fundamental constituents. Additionally, travel through the wormhole would require motion faster than the speed of light, a physical impossibility. For these reasons, Einstein-Rosen bridges were quickly forgotten despite other later solutions that included them. They were assumed to be mathematical oddities that had no bearing on physical reality.

In 1963, Roy Kerr devised the famous Kerr solution to Einstein's equations, a more realistic description of black holes than the original Schwarzschild solution. Kerr assumed the star that would form the black hole to be rotating and found that it would not eventually collapse to a point, but rather to a ring. When approaching the ride from the side, gravity and spacetime curvature are both still infinite, so matter is again inevitably destroyed. However, traveling through the ring would result in large but finite gravity. An object that does so and avoids being crushed by the still-formidable gravity can enter the Einstein-Rosen bridge and gain access to the mirror universe.

alien visitors: unprobable

(apparent) FTL capability: theoretically possible