Traversable Wormholes and Energy Conditions with Two Different Shape Functions in $f(R)$ Gravity

Abstract: Traversable wormholes, tunnel like structures introduced by Morris & Thorne \cite{morris1}, have a significant role in connection of two different space-times or two different parts of the same space-time. The characteristics of these wormholes depend upon the redshift and shape functions which are defined in terms of radial coordinate. In literature, several shape functions are defined and wormholes are studied in $f(R)$ gravity with respect to these shape functions \cite{lobo, saiedi, baha}. In this paper, two shape functions (i) $b(r)=\dfrac{{r_0} \log (r+1)}{\log ({r_0}+1)}$ and (ii) $b(r)=r_0(\frac{r}{r_0})^\gamma$, $0<\gamma<1$ are considered. The first shape function is newly defined, however the second one is collected from the literature\cite{cataldo}. The wormholes are investigated for each type of shape function in $f(R)$ gravity with $f(R)=R+\alpha R^m-\beta R^{-n}$, where $m$, $n$, $\alpha$, and $\beta$ are real constants. Varying parameters $\alpha$ or $\beta$, $f(R)$ model is studied in five subcases for each type of shape function. In each case, the energy density, radial & tangential pressures, energy conditions that include null energy condition, weak energy condition, strong energy condition & dominated energy condition, and anisotropic parameter are computed. The energy density is found to be positive and all energy conditions are obtained to be violated which supports the existence of wormholes. Also, the equation of state parameter is obtained to possess values less than -1, that shows the presence of the phantom fluid and leads towards the expansion of the universe.