TY - JOUR
T1 - Instability of the Kaluza-Klein vacuum
AU - Witten, Edward
N1 - Funding Information:
* Supported in part by NSF grant PHY80-19754. 481
PY - 1982/2/22
Y1 - 1982/2/22
N2 - It is argued that the ground state of the Kaluza-Klein unified theory is unstable against a process of semiclassical barrier penetration. This is related to the fact that the positive energy conjecture does not hold for the Kaluza-Klein theory; an explicit counter-example is given. The reasoning presented here assumes that in general relativity one should include manifolds of non-vacuum topology. It is argued that the existence of elementary fermions (not present in the original Kaluza-Klein theory) would stabilize the Kaluza-Klein vacuum.
AB - It is argued that the ground state of the Kaluza-Klein unified theory is unstable against a process of semiclassical barrier penetration. This is related to the fact that the positive energy conjecture does not hold for the Kaluza-Klein theory; an explicit counter-example is given. The reasoning presented here assumes that in general relativity one should include manifolds of non-vacuum topology. It is argued that the existence of elementary fermions (not present in the original Kaluza-Klein theory) would stabilize the Kaluza-Klein vacuum.
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U2 - 10.1016/0550-3213(82)90007-4
DO - 10.1016/0550-3213(82)90007-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:5544284361
SN - 0550-3213
VL - 195
SP - 481
EP - 492
JO - Nuclear Physics, Section B
JF - Nuclear Physics, Section B
IS - 3
ER -