Extra Dimensions of Space

Don Lincoln

Citation: The Physics Teacher 51, 334 (2013); doi: 10.1119/1.4818367
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4818367
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/tpt/51/6?ver=pdfcov
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers

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is an additional dimension that must be incorporated into
our thinking. However, this extra dimension is not central to
the meaning of the term extra dimensions.
What we mean when we say extra dimensions is additional
dimensions of space. And this is precisely why the idea seems
so ludicrous, as it is manifestly obvious that we live in a three-
dimensional universe. Yet the idea of additional spatial di-
mensions is a credible one, taken seriously by researchers and
the target of complex searches by experimenters at the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory. So just what
is this all about?
Why extra dimensions?
Before discussing some specific modern thoughts involv-
ing extra dimensions, there is a very important question that
must be answered. That question is, Why are extra dimen-
sions a topic of discussion among current researchers? There
are several answers. One is that in a theory that includes extra
dimensions, it becomes possible to exploit them as a way to
think about unifying the equations of gravity and electromag-
netism. This approach has had some interesting success in the
past but has never been completely satisfying. Still, this pos-
sibility gives an inkling of the power of the hypothesis.
Another reason theorists study extra dimensions is be-
cause they are required if the theory of superstrings is correct.
Superstrings are a proposed ultimate building block of the
universe. Rather than the point-like particles of the Standard
Model, superstrings are just thatstrings. Looking like little
Extra Dimensions of Space
Don Lincoln, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL
T
hey say that there is no such thing as a stupid ques-
tion. In a pedagogically pure sense, thats probably
true. But some questions do seem to flirt dangerously
close to being really quite ridiculous. One such question
might well be, How many dimensions of space are there?
I mean, its pretty obvious that there are three: left/right, up/
down, and forward/backward. No matter how you express an
objects coordinate, be it Cartesian, spherical, cylindrical, or
something exotic, its eminently clear that we live in a three-
dimensional universe.
Yet youve no doubt encountered the term extra dimen-
sions in articles youve read. Just what does that mean to a
physicist? Lets start with making clear what we dont mean.
Extra dimensions does not mean parallel universes as exem-
plified by several Star Trek plot lines or, more recently, the
television show Sliders, in which people much like us have
different histories. These stories involve alternate realities
an idea that is not considered mainstream. Mathematicians
also can cast a problem as multidimensional, for example
needing to identify the temperature everywhere in space. To
specify this requires four coordinatesthe three spatial coor-
dinates and the single temperature. Neither of these examples
encompasses the physicists meaning of the term.
Another familiar statement is that we exist in a four-dimen-
sional space-time, in which space and time are intertwined,
very similar to how the x- and y-coordinates of the Cartesian
plane are components of two-dimensional space. This is cer-
tainly true. In our discussion, we must keep in mind that time
This months cover photo exemplifies the deep connections of the familiar infinite spatial dimensions
and the hypothetical and tiny extra dimensions. Both theoretically and empirically, the well-known three
dimensions of spacetime can be regarded as both infinite and essentially flat in the Euclidean sense.
The background of the cover is a telescope image, studded with stars and even distant galaxies, which
reminds us that familiar space is vast beyond comprehension. In contrast, the rose-colored overlay is a
two-dimensional projection of the six extra spatial dimensions of traditional superstring theory. This six-
dimensional space is called a Calabi-Yau manifold. Each dimension is thought to be of order the Planck
length and is cyclical in nature, meaning that if you walk long enough along the axis of one dimension,
you will return to your starting point.
In superstring theory, as in all theories of extra dimensions, each three-dimensional spacetime point is accompanied by a unique
set of miniature extra dimensions. In the case of superstring theory, to fully describe an objects position in space, one needs 10
coordinates: three of familiar space, one of time, and six to describe the objects position in the six dimensions of the miniature
Calabi-Yau space.
Other theories of extra dimensions will have a different geometrical figure that represents the additional dimensions, thus the
one shown here should be regarded as a special case. However, the principle holds in general and the cover reminds us that a
full understanding of the shape and structure of space in the universe requires an appreciation of both the infinite and, if extra
dimensions exist, the minute.
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THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 51, SEPTEMBER 2013 335
tended Einsteins theory of general relativity into five dimen-
sions. Five years later, Oskar Klein proposed a way to hide the
inconveniently undiscovered extra dimension using an idea
called compactification. A compactified dimension is one
that is small and this is frequently achieved by being cyclical.
To give an example of what is meant by cyclical, one could
invoke the Earth. In contrast to an infinite plane, if you keep
walking forward on the surface of the Earth, you eventually
return to your starting point. In the following, I will describe
these ideas not by adding an additional dimension to our
familiar three, as that is too hard to visualize. Instead, we will
take a one-dimensional universe and add an extra dimension,
as this approach makes it much easier to understand the im-
portant points.
Large and compact dimensions can be contrasted by imag-
ining a tightrope walker (Fig. 1). When a person walks along
a taught rope, he can move in just one dimension (at least if
he is any good at it). However, imagine an ant, which is small
compared to the size of the rope. It can walk both along the
rope in the manner of the human, but also around the cir-
cumference of the rope. What is one-dimensional for a large
observer can be two-dimensional for a smaller one. And, for
a paramecium on the same rope, both dimensions will appear
to be of comparable size and large.
So how do we know that any hypothetical dimensions are
small? Well, beyond the obvious observation of the directions
in which we can travel, consider some well-known physics
principles that are taught in introductory physics classes,
including Coulombs law and Newtons law of universal gravi-
tation. In the equations representing both of these principles,
the force is inversely proportional to the square of the dis-
tance between two objects.
We understand the origin of this mathematical relation-
ship from our familiarity with Gausss law, which says the
enclosed charge is proportional to the closed integral of the
dot product of the electric field vector and differential surface
elements .
For a point particle, we invoke symmetry considerations
and realize that contours of constant electric field are the
surfaces of spheres and that the electric field is everywhere
perpendicular to the surface. From this, we put in the area
of the sphere and get the usual
However consider Gausss law in hypothetical one-, two-,
and four-dimensional geometries. The approach is the same
with a source, symmetry considerations, and a dimension-
ally appropriate surface through which the flux can pass. As
we see in Fig. 2, the area through which the flux can pass in
a one-dimensional world doesnt change with distance from
the source. In a two-dimensional world, the symmetric sur-
face is not a sphere but rather a circle. Flux from the source
passes through the circumference of a circle, which increases
linearly with radius. In a three-dimensional world, the area of
the symmetry surface (a sphere) increases with the square of
sticks of spaghetti (open strings) or hula hoops (closed
strings, and where little means of order 10
-35
m), these
strings vibrate in multidimensional space. Different vibration
patterns result in different familiar particles, where one kind
of vibration leads to an electron and another leads to a top
quark. It turns out that superstring theory requires 10 spatial
dimensions in order to give reasonable results. More or fewer
dimensions and the calculations of the probabilities of all the
things two strings can do when they interact turn out to be
something other than 100%. With the right number of extra
dimensions, everything works out just fine.
Another unexplained observation of modern physics is
the weakness of gravity compared to the other forces. If we
define the strong nuclear force to be of unit strength, two of
the other known forces have roughly comparable strengths:
electromagnetism (10
-2
) and the weak nuclear force (10
-5
).
However gravity is much, much weaker, on the order of 10
-40
.
This relative weakness is called the hierarchy problem and
it is currently unsolved. There are many proposed solutions,
one of which invokes extra dimensions. If gravity can leak
into more spatial dimensions than the familiar three, then
perhaps it is just as strong as the other three and the weakness
is an illusion that reflects our limits as three-dimensional be-
ings.
There are other mysteries that can be cast extra dimen-
sionally, including some cosmological ones that are discussed
in the suggested reading.
1-5
But the real bottom line once
you begin to consider the idea of extra dimensions is that you
eventually realize the real question is, Why not? If you can
imagine something, it could be true, at least in principle. Un-
til the idea is definitively disproven, it must remain a hypoth-
esis that should be considered. The remainder of this article
will describe some of these ideas.
History
The history of extra dimensions in physics goes back to
the early years of the 20th century. In 1921, Theodor Klein
attempted to unify gravity and electromagnetism when he ex-
Fig. 1. A tightrope walker is restricted to motion in one
dimension along the ropes axis. In contrast, the smaller
ant has access to two dimensions, including one much
smaller one. (Figure courtesy Dan Claes.)
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336 THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 51, SEPTEMBER 2013
tons law of gravity applies for all radii. The experimental tests
of gravity have set much weaker limits on the dimensionality
of space compared to those performed for the other forces.
To give some numerical perspective, while Newton him-
self performed experiments on the nature of gravity, preci-
sion tests began in 1797-1798, when Henry Cavendish tried
to characterize the gravitational force between two lead balls,
one weighing a little over a pound and the other weighing
over 300 pounds. More recently, the Et-Wash group (so
named as this is the group at the University of Washington
that performs studies of gravity conceptually similar to those
performed by Lornd Etvs in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries) has studied the radial dependence of the force of
gravity at sub-millimeter scales. Interpretation of its data is
subtle as there are many parameters that must be taken into
consideration. However, it is roughly correct to say that the
inverse square law of gravity has been tested to radial separa-
tions as small as of order several tens of micrometers.
Still, 2050 m is an extremely weak limit compared to the
10
-19
m limit set by the other forces and extremely far from
the theoretically attractive Planck scale of 10
-35
m. It might
seem odd to mention the weaker limit set from gravitational
studies when stronger empirical limits have been set. How-
ever, there are good reasons to separate discussions of gravity
from the other three forces.
Recall that gravity is much weaker than the other forces
and that there is no definitive explanation for this observa-
tion. In 1998, Nima Arkani-Hamed, Savas Dimopoulos, and
Gia Dvali proposed a very interesting idea. They postulated
the idea that (a) extra dimensions exist and (b) that only
gravity can access these extra dimensions. In their model,
the well-studied strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces are
trapped in a three-dimensional subset of the universe, while
gravity has access to all dimensions. By way of analogy, in
the radius. The surface area of a 4-D and 5-D sphere is (2
2

r
3
) and (8/3
2
r
4
), respectively. In fact, you can generalize
the relationship between the dimensionality of the space and
the exponent of the radius. For any number of dimensions N,
the surface of an N-dimensional sphere grows as r
N-1
.
From this observation, it seems obvious that we have al-
ready established the dimensionality of our space with good
accuracy. After all, Coulombs law and Newtons law of gravity
have been tested to impressive precision. The fact that these
forces depend inversely on the square of the radius points
rather clearly at a three-dimensional reality.
It is at this point that we must take a step back and under-
stand exactly what has been explicitly measured and what is
merely a theoretical prejudice. Using conventional quantum
mechanics and general relativity, it is straightforward to show
that these two theories cannot possibly comfortably coexist at
the Planck length, which is 10
-35
m. Thus, it has long been a
theoretical prejudice that the size of extra dimensions should
be similarly small. However the data do not support this
conjecture strongly, although neither do data rule it out. Ex-
perimentally, physicists have used the Large Hadron Collider
at the CERN laboratory in Europe to measure the behavior of
the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces down to a size
scale of order 10
-19
m. Since the data are in good agreement
with the Standard Model (which is cast in a three-dimension-
al universe), all we can conclude is that additional extra di-
mensions relevant to these forces cannot be larger than about
1/10,000 the size of a proton.
In gravity, the tests are far less stringent. The strength of
gravity is incomparably weaker than the other three forces.
Thus, traditional gravity is not measured in particle physics
experiments but rather only by comparatively large equip-
ment. Accordingly, we cant be completely certain that New-
Fig. 3. In a universe with one large and one small and cyclical
dimension, the situation looks quite different when one changes
the size being probed. At small scales, the shape of the force
field looks like a familiar two-dimensional one, while at large
scales the force field looks one dimensional. The field lines fill up
the smaller dimension.
Fig. 2. In a one-dimensional universe, the flux from the source
can travel along the axis and the area it encounters doesnt
change at all. (Recall that in a one-dimensional world the flux
can only travel along the dimensions direction. The transverse
dimension shown here is to enhance visualization.) Indeed, to be
mathematically correct, that area consists of only two points on
opposite sides of the source. In a two-dimensional world, the size
of the surface that the flux encounters changes with radius. The
surface is the circumference of the circle, which scales linearly
with the distance between the source and the surface.
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THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 51, SEPTEMBER 2013 337
magnitude smaller than limits originating from direct tests of
the inverse square law.
So what experimental signatures can be expected that will
signal the onset of strong gravity? One exciting possibility
connects ideas from general relativity and quantum mechan-
ics. In his 1924 doctoral thesis, Louis de Broglie showed that
the wavelength of a particle is inversely proportional to its
energy; thus, probing small scales means concentrating a
lot of energy in a small volume. Coupling this idea with the
onset of strong gravity as these small probes gain access to
additional dimensions, the result is that it might be possible
to create microscopic black holes. Thus observing subatomic
black holes is a credible prospect of theories incorporating
extra dimensions.
It is perhaps worth mentioning that this idea is the origin
of the the LHC will destroy the world hubbub that showed
up in the press in 2008. Employing an only partial under-
standing of the ideas described in this article, some were con-
cerned that because extra dimensions might exist, the LHC
could therefore make a black hole. Toss the term black hole
together with the medias need to tell a gripping story and you
have a perfect storm that could easily lead to hype and even
hysteria. Given that the LHC is a discovery machine designed
to explore the unknown and that the black hole possibility is
theoretically credible, the question of the safety of the LHC
was one that needed to be answered. The management at
CERN took the situation seriously and formed a task force of
world-class theorists to investigate the topic and give a care-
fully considered report. There are many reasons to reject the
idea of the LHC posing any danger, but the most compelling
answer is that the Earth is constantly being pummeled by
cosmic rays from space at energies much, much higher than
the LHC can deliver. In fact, to create as many collisions in
the LHC as the universe has already created in our atmo-
sphere with LHC-equivalent energy (or higher), wed have to
run the LHC for 100,000 years. Were still here, and thus we
can conclude there is no danger posed by subatomic black
holes (or any other imagined dangers). So rather than being
concerned, you should join with me and hope that subatomic
black holes actually are observed at the LHC. Since we know
they pose zero risk, discovery of microscopic black holes will
indicate that we are about to make a huge step forward in our
understanding of gravity.
In addition to black holes, if extra dimensions exist, there
are several other possible signatures that the LHC might
observe. One is to observe a hypothetical particle called
a graviton. A graviton is thought to be the particle that
transmits the gravitational force. If gravity becomes strong,
then gravitons will be made frequently. Since strong gravity
comes simultaneously with the ability to probe additional
dimensions, these gravitons will occasionally escape into the
extra dimensions and thus disappear from our familiar three-
dimensional reality. Experimenters look for imbalances in
the transverse momenta of particles created in the accelerator
collisions. An unexpected excess of imbalances could indicate
billiards the balls are trapped on a two-dimensional surface,
while the noise of the balls hitting each other is free to travel
in three dimensions. Physicists use the word brane to de-
scribe a lower dimensionality portion of a higher dimension
universe, evoking images of the surface of a two-dimensional
soap bubble (a membrane) in a three-dimensional space.
General relativity tells us that gravity is intimately tied
into the geometry of the cosmos. Boiled down to its essence,
gravity is a distortion of space. Thus gravity must access all
dimensions that exist. If the other three forces were trapped
in a three-dimensional space, this could explain the relative
weakness of gravity. The volume of a four-dimensional space
is much larger than a three-dimensional one, and the flux of
gravity could occupy this larger volume.
However, we have seen that Newtons law of gravity rules
out extra dimensions that gravity can access which are bigger
than a few tens of microns. Thus we must restrict ourselves
to theoretical scenarios in which there exist extra dimensions
smaller than about 10 microns and to which only gravity can
penetrate.
Its perhaps worthwhile to illustrate how a force like grav-
ity can exist in N dimensions for large-size scales and N+1
(or N+more) for small scales. Figure 3 shows the case of one
large dimension and one small dimension. When probing
sizes smaller than the small dimension, a source can emit
force lines isotropically in two dimensions. In essence, at
small scales, the geometry looks much like a two-dimensional
plane. However, the force lines eventually fill up the small
dimension, and at large scales the resultant situation is just
one dimensional.
So what is the experimental situation? Extra dimensions
may exist. If they do, any dimensions accessible to the strong,
weak, and electromagnetic forces must be smaller than about
10
-19
m. Extra dimensions to which gravity has access (but
not the other three forces) must be smaller than a few tens of
microns.
Gravity at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
While weve discussed tests of Newtons law of gravity
down to sub-millimeter scales, experiments using the same
approach are unlikely to make improvements of much more
than a single order of magnitude. To study gravity at lower
size scales will require particle accelerators. The reasoning
here is a bit subtle, so we will take it slowly.
Gravity is much weaker than the other forces, which is why
there is no chance to study traditional gravity in an accelera-
tor environment. However, we recall that one of the reasons
to propose extra dimensions is because the apparent weak-
ness of gravity could, in principle, be due to gravity being able
to escape into additional dimensions. If that is the case, then
gravity will suddenly become strong when accelerators begin
to probe sizes that are comparable to extra dimensions. As we
have mentioned earlier, the LHC can probe phenomena as
small as 10
-19
m. This provides an opportunity to extend our
understanding of gravity to length scales about 13 orders of
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338 THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 51, SEPTEMBER 2013
the creation of gravitons and thus the onset of strong gravity.
There is yet another possible signature of the existence
of additional dimensions that gravity can access. If the ad-
ditional dimensions are small and cyclical, then a particles
quantum mechanical wave function can wrap around them.
This is much like the pedagogically familiar particle in a
box example of quantum mechanics. Instead of setting
boundary conditions where the wave function is zero at the
edge of the box, in the higher-dimensional case, the bound-
ary condition is that the wave function must be smooth and
continuous everywhere. This requirement implies that only
an integer number of wavelengths can fit in this small dimen-
sion, as illustrated in Fig. 4. Particles with these properties
are called Kaluza-Klein particles. The mass of the particles
described by these wave functions is related to the number
of wavelengths that fit in this compactified dimension. If a
collection of particles are found with the mass spectrum pre-
dicted by Kaluza-Klein theory, this will be powerful evidence
that additional dimensions have been discovered.

Fig. 4. It is possible for quantum mechanical wave functions to
wrap around the small dimensions. Two example wavelengths
are shown here. The mass of these hypothetical particles
increases as the number of wavelengths increases.
Conclusion
Investigation into the possibility of extra spatial dimen-
sions has a long history and is currently a vibrant research
area. The ideas described here are a very small subset of the
notions that have been proposed. One possible consequence
of the conjecture that our universe might be a three-dimen-
sional space embedded in a four- or more-dimensional space
is that there might be other similar universes. Just in the way
that the top and the bottom surfaces of a cube are separated by
the cubes thickness, it is possible that entire three-dimensional
universes could exist very near us, separated by just a small dis-
tance in an impenetrable higher dimension.
The selected readings listed at the end of this article are some
of the more understandable descriptions of this rich topic, and
the reader is invited to use them to further explore these ideas.
Abbotts book
1
is a great introduction to thinking about ad-
ditional dimensions and Randalls book
2
covers the ideas de-
scribed here and many more. As a leading architect of the theory
of extra dimensions she has done a superlative job of translating
her expertise for a popular audience. Greenes book
3
describes
the role of extra dimensions in superstring theory, and my book
4

describes some of the experimental signatures in more detail
than possible here. The final reference
5
is the report of the LHC
Safety Assessment Group, which thoroughly debunks the wor-
ries of extra-dimension-induced black holes (as well as other
imagined dangers). Enjoy!
References
1. E. Abbott, Flatland: An Edition with Notes and Commentary
(Cambridge University Press, 2009).
2. L. Randall, Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Uni-
verse's Hidden Dimensions (Harper Perennial, 2006).
3. B. Greene, Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and
the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (Vintage Books, 2000).
4. D. Lincoln, Understanding the Universe: From Quarks to the Cos-
mos (World Scientific, 2012, revised).
5. LHC Safety Assessment Group, lsag.web.cern.ch/lsag/
LSAG-Report.pdf.
Don Lincoln is a senior researcher at Fermilab and an adjunct professor at
the University of Notre Dame. He is a member of both the Fermilab DZero
and CERN CMS collaborations, and has co-authored over 500 papers. He
is also an avid popularizer of frontier physics and has written two books on
science for the public: The Quantum Frontier: The Large Hadron Collider and
Understanding the Universe: From Quarks to the Cosmos. His book Alien
Universe: Extraterrestrial Life in our Mind and in the Cosmos will be available
this fall.
lincoln@fnal.gov; www.facebook.com/Dr.Don.Lincoln/
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