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Article
Spacetime Dimension from a Variational Principle
Physics Review D
  • D. Hochberg
  • James Thomas Wheeler, Utah State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-15-1991
Disciplines
Abstract

We consider spacetime as having an a priori arbitrary, possibly fractional dimension p>0 and propose a new variational principle for actions defined on p-dimensional spaces. Demanding that the action be stationary with respect to variations in p leads to a constraint equation whose solution yields an explicit determination of the dimension at the classical level. We illustrate these concepts by analyzing a model which reduces to free scalar field theory when p is any positive integer.

Comments

Published by American Physical Society in Physical Review D. Publisher PDF is available for download through link above.

Citation Information
Hochberg, D. and Wheeler, J. T., and , Spacetime dimension from a variational principle,Phys. Rev. D43 (1991) 2617 - 2621. http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v43/i8/p2617_1