over
M. In 1926, Oskar Klein proposed that the fourth spatial dimension is curled up in a circle of a very small
radius, so that a
particle moving a short distance along that axis would return to where it began. The distance a particle can travel before reaching its initial position is said to be the size of the dimension. This extra dimension is a
compact set, and construction of this compact dimension is referred to as
compactification. In modern geometry, the extra fifth dimension can be understood to be the
circle group U(1), as
electromagnetism can essentially be formulated as a
gauge theory on a
fiber bundle, the
circle bundle, with
gauge group U(1). In Kaluza–Klein theory this group suggests that gauge symmetry is the symmetry of circular compact dimensions. Once this geometrical interpretation is understood, it is relatively straightforward to replace U(1) by a general
Lie group. Such generalizations are often called
Yang–Mills theories. If a distinction is drawn, then it is that Yang–Mills theories occur on a flat spacetime, whereas Kaluza–Klein treats the more general case of curved spacetime. The base space of Kaluza–Klein theory need not be four-dimensional spacetime; it can be any (
pseudo-)
Riemannian manifold, or even a
supersymmetric manifold or
orbifold or even a
noncommutative space. The construction can be outlined, roughly, as follows. One starts by considering a
principal fiber bundle P with
gauge group G over a
manifold M. Given a
connection on the bundle, and a
metric on the base manifold, and a gauge invariant metric on the tangent of each fiber, one can construct a
bundle metric defined on the entire bundle. Computing the
scalar curvature of this bundle metric, one finds that it is constant on each fiber: this is the "Kaluza miracle". One did not have to explicitly impose a cylinder condition, or to compactify: by assumption, the gauge group is already compact. Next, one takes this scalar curvature as the
Lagrangian density, and, from this, constructs the
Einstein–Hilbert action for the bundle, as a whole. The equations of motion, the
Euler–Lagrange equations, can be then obtained by considering where the action is
stationary with respect to variations of either the metric on the base manifold, or of the gauge connection. Variations with respect to the base metric gives the
Einstein field equations on the base manifold, with the
energy–momentum tensor given by the
curvature (
field strength) of the gauge connection. On the flip side, the action is stationary against variations of the gauge connection precisely when the gauge connection solves the
Yang–Mills equations. Thus, by applying a single idea: the
principle of least action, to a single quantity: the scalar curvature on the bundle (as a whole), one obtains simultaneously all of the needed field equations, for both the spacetime and the gauge field. As an approach to the unification of the forces, it is straightforward to apply the Kaluza–Klein theory in an attempt to unify gravity with the
strong and
electroweak forces by using the symmetry group of the
Standard Model,
SU(3) ×
SU(2) ×
U(1). However, an attempt to convert this interesting geometrical construction into a bona-fide model of reality flounders on a number of issues, including the fact that the
fermions must be introduced in an artificial way (in nonsupersymmetric models). Nonetheless, KK remains an important
touchstone in theoretical physics and is often embedded in more sophisticated theories. It is studied in its own right as an object of geometric interest in
K-theory. Even in the absence of a completely satisfying theoretical physics framework, the idea of exploring extra, compactified, dimensions is of considerable interest in the
experimental physics and
astrophysics communities. A variety of predictions, with real experimental consequences, can be made (in the case of
large extra dimensions and
warped models). For example, on the simplest of principles, one might expect to have
standing waves in the extra compactified dimension(s). If a spatial extra dimension is of radius
R, the invariant
mass of such standing waves would be
Mn =
nh/
Rc with
n an
integer,
h being the
Planck constant and
c the
speed of light. This set of possible mass values is often called the
Kaluza–Klein tower. Similarly, in
Thermal quantum field theory a compactification of the euclidean time dimension leads to the
Matsubara frequencies and thus to a discretized thermal energy spectrum. However, Klein's approach to a quantum theory is flawed and, for example, leads to a calculated electron mass in the order of magnitude of the
Planck mass. Examples of experimental pursuits include work by the
CDF collaboration, which has re-analyzed
particle collider data for the signature of effects associated with large extra dimensions/
warped models.
Robert Brandenberger and
Cumrun Vafa have speculated that in the early universe,
cosmic inflation causes three of the space dimensions to expand to cosmological size while the remaining dimensions of space remained microscopic. == Space–time–matter theory ==