But now you should object for another reason. If the field lines of gravity spread out into the
extra dimensions, you would expect the force to fall off faster than 1/r
2
as the distance increases.
But we know that gravity is a 1/r
2
force, don’t we?
This is where the second part of the brane-world idea comes in. The extra dimensions are
curled up. A useful picture of this space is a soda straw with a line on it, as shown below
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................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
The thick black line is intended to represent the brane on which we live - that is ordinary three
dimensional space. Of course, the line is only one dimensional, but if we had more dimensions to
draw in, we could include the other two. The important thing is that these dimensions are flat and
infinite. We have only shown a segment of the infinitely long straw. The other dimension - around
the straw - represents the extra dimensions. Again, there might be more of them. But the important
thing is that these extra dimensions are curled up and finite. You have to remember when you stare
at this that we have shown just one real and one extra dimension, to make it easy to visualize. But
otherwise, it is a really helpful picture.
Now suppose we put two masses on the brane - representing two masses in our three dimen-
sional world. The situation is very different depending on whether the distance r between the
masses is large or small compared to D, the diameter of the extra dimensions.
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................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
• •
r
D
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...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
For r ¿ D, the field lines spread out into the extra dimensions. On this small scale, the multi-
dimensional surface of the soda straw looks approximately flat, and gravity looks n dimensional.
The force falls off like 1/r
n−1
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................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
• •
r
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...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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field lines uniformly spread
over extra dimensions
D
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...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
For r À D, the field lines spread out uniformly over extra the extra dimensions once you
get a distance much greater than D from the masses. Then the force looks three dimensional,
proportional to 1/r
2
.
One of the reasons that this may be interesting is that it provides an explanation for the weak-
ness of gravity. Gravity is week for masses on our brane world not because it is weak at short
distances, but because it is diluted by being spread over the “large” extra dimensions. What “large”
might mean is anybody’s guess. But it could certainly show up at the LHC if we are lucky.
If this seems interesting to you may want to check out
20