- #1
"pi"mp
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Local Electrodynamics in higher dimensions??
So I am an unexperienced undergrad but the other day I had a few thoughts which are most likely crazy. I'm just wondering why they don't work. And whether the questions I'm asking are answered elsewhere.
So I've heard:
(i) Maxwell's equations break down on very, very small length scales. But Hermann Weyl showed they only work in (3+1)-dim spacetime.
and
(ii) Perhaps we haven't observed gravitons because they escape to higher dimensions after traveling only tiny length scales.
So I was wondering, is there some geometric way of thinking of the universe where locally, the universe is a higher dimensional space and they dimensions somehow coalesce or "smooth out" into the usual (3+1)-dimensions at larger lengths? Might Maxwell's electrodynamics be only approximate but break down locally?
I might not even be asking sensible questions and I certainly don't know enough mathematics to ask it more concisely, but any thoughts would be appreciated.
So I am an unexperienced undergrad but the other day I had a few thoughts which are most likely crazy. I'm just wondering why they don't work. And whether the questions I'm asking are answered elsewhere.
So I've heard:
(i) Maxwell's equations break down on very, very small length scales. But Hermann Weyl showed they only work in (3+1)-dim spacetime.
and
(ii) Perhaps we haven't observed gravitons because they escape to higher dimensions after traveling only tiny length scales.
So I was wondering, is there some geometric way of thinking of the universe where locally, the universe is a higher dimensional space and they dimensions somehow coalesce or "smooth out" into the usual (3+1)-dimensions at larger lengths? Might Maxwell's electrodynamics be only approximate but break down locally?
I might not even be asking sensible questions and I certainly don't know enough mathematics to ask it more concisely, but any thoughts would be appreciated.