Phys. Rev. D 43, 2617–2621 (1991)Spacetime dimension from a variational principleReceived 14 September 1990; published in the issue dated 15 April 1991 We consider spacetime as having an a priori arbitrary, possibly fractional dimension p>0 and propose a new variational principle for actions defined on p-dimensional spaces. Demanding that the action be stationary with respect to variations in p leads to a constraint equation whose solution yields an explicit determination of the dimension at the classical level. We illustrate these concepts by analyzing a model which reduces to free scalar field theory when p is any positive integer. © 1991 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.43.2617
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.43.2617
PACS:
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