An Experimental Test of the Classical Interpretation of the Kaluza Fifth Dimension
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Kaluza was the first to realize that the four-dimensional gravitational field of general relativity and the classical electromagnetic field behave as if they were components of a five-dimensional gravitational field. We present a novel experimental test of the macroscopic classical interpretation of the Kaluza fifth dimension. Our experiment design probes a key feature of Kaluza unification-that electric charge is identified with motion in the fifth dimension. Therefore, we tested for a time dilation effect on an electrically charged clock. This test can also be understood as a constraint on time dilation from a constant electric potential of any origin. This is only the second such test of time dilation under electric charge reported in the literature, and a null result was obtained here. We introduce the concept of a charged clock in the Kaluza context, and discuss some ambiguities in its interpretation. We conclude that a classical, macroscopic interpretation of the Kaluza fifth dimension may require a timelike signature in the five-dimensional metric, and the associated absence of a rest frame along the fifth coordinate.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 587-595 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Physics |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2020 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
| Scopus | 85124948926 |
|---|---|
| ORCID | /0000-0002-7406-7588/work/172570931 |
Keywords
Keywords
- Kaluza, charged clocks, time dilation, higher dimensions, classical fields, general relativity