Quantum and thermal effects in higher dimensions

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5121310

Roth, B D.B.

Two examples of higher dimensional theories are considered at the one-loop level for quantum and thermal effects: the five dimensional Kaluza-Klein model and the 26-dimensional closed bosonic string. In the Kaluza-Klein universe with single compact spatial dimension of length L{sub 5}, the effective potential for L{sub 5} is found. If initially L{sub 5} is less than a temperature-dependent critical length, L{sub 5} will shrink at least down to a length comparable to the Planck length. This instability has been noted by Appelquist and Chodos in the zero-temperature limit. If, on the other hand, L{sub 5} starts out larger than the critical length, it will tend to increase. This result suggests that the temperature effects may play an important role in Kaluza-Klein cosmological models. The effects of quantized fermion and boson fields are then introduced. It is shown that massive fermions, as well as massive twisted bosons, can stabilize the compact fifth dimension against collapse caused by Casimir forces, provided that the sum of an induced cosmological constant and the bare cosmological constant is adjusted to be non-negative. Finally, the finite temperature string path integral for interacting closed bosonic strings is examined, following the work of Polchinski. The winding number contribution to the classical action is found for arbitrary genus. It is shown that on an arbitrary genus world sheet all windings of the fields around the compact time direction can be rotated into a single cycle. The modular invariance of this result is demonstrated.

• Research Organization: Texas Univ., Austin, TX (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5121310
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
KALUZA-KLEIN THEORY
MANY-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
BOSONS
CALCULATION METHODS
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
FIELD THEORIES
UNIFIED-FIELD THEORIES
645400* - High Energy Physics- Field Theory
653000 - Nuclear Theory
657000 - Theoretical & Mathematical Physics