Dr. Who had his Tardis, H.G. Wells had his Time Machine and Harry Potter well, he just used magic. But UBC Okanagan has a real-life time lord鈥攎athematics and physics instructor Ben Tippett.

After some serious number crunching, Tippet has come up with what he says is a mathematical model for a viable time machine.

In a recently published study about the feasibility of time travel, Tippett, whose field of expertise is Einstein鈥檚 theory of general relativity, and who studies black holes and science fiction when he鈥檚 not teaching, used math and physics to create a formula that describes a method for time travel.

鈥淧eople think of time travel as something fictional,鈥� said Tippett. 鈥淎nd we tend to think it鈥檚 not possible because we don鈥檛 actually do it. But, mathematically, it is possible.鈥�

Ever since H.G. Wells published his book Time Machine in 1885, people have been curious about time travel鈥攁nd scientists have worked to solve or disprove the theory. In 1915, Albert Einstein announced his theory of general relativity, stating that gravitational fields are caused by distortions in the fabric of space and time. More than 100 years later, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration鈥攁n international team of physics institutes and research groups鈥攁nnounced the detection of gravitational waves generated by colliding black holes billions of light years away, confirming Einstein鈥檚 theory.

The division of space into three dimensions, with time in a separate dimension by itself, is incorrect, said Tippett. The four dimensions should be imagined simultaneously, where different directions are connected, as a space-time continuum. Using Einstein鈥檚 theory, Tippett explains that the curvature of space-time accounts for the curved orbits of the planets.

In 鈥渇lat鈥� or uncurved space-time, planets and stars would move in straight lines. In the vicinity of a massive star, space-time geometry becomes curved and the straight trajectories of nearby planets will follow the curvature and bend around the star.

鈥淭he time direction of the space-time surface also shows curvature. There is evidence showing the closer to a black hole we get, time moves slower,鈥� said Tippett.

鈥淢y model of a time machine uses the curved space-time鈥攖o bend time into a circle for the passengers, not in a straight line. That circle takes us back in time.鈥�

While it is possible to describe this type of time travel using a mathematical equation, Tippett doubts that anyone will ever build a machine to make it work.

鈥淗.G. Wells popularized the term 鈥榯ime machine鈥� and he left people with the thought that an explorer would need a machine or special box to actually accomplish time travel,鈥� Tippett said.

鈥淲hile is it mathematically feasible, it is not yet possible to build a space-time machine because we need materials鈥攚hich we call exotic matter鈥攖o bend space-time in these impossible ways, but they have yet to be discovered.鈥�

For his research, Tippett created a mathematical model of a Traversable Acausal Retrograde Domain in Space-time (TARDIS). He describes it as a bubble of space-time geometry which carries its contents backward and forward through space and time as it tours a large circular path. The bubble moves through space-time at speeds greater than the speed of light at times, allowing it to move backward in time.

鈥淪tudying space-time is both fascinating and problematic. And it鈥檚 also a fun way to use math and physics,鈥� says Tippett. 鈥淓xperts in my field have been exploring the possibility of mathematical time machines since 1949. And my research presents a new method for doing it.鈥�

Tippett鈥檚 research was recently published in the IOPscience Journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.