Relaxing to Three Dimensions

Abstract

We propose a new selection principle for distinguishing among possible vacua that we call the "relaxation principle". The idea is that the universe will naturally select among possible vacua through its cosmological evolution, and the configuration with the biggest filling fraction is the likeliest. We apply this idea to the question of the number of dimensions of space. We show that under conventional (but higher-dimensional) FRW evolution, a universe filled with equal numbers of branes and antibranes will naturally come to be dominated by 3-branes and 7-branes. We show why this might help explain the number of dimensions that are experienced in our visible universe.

4 pages; minor improvements, references added

References in corpus (6)

• de Sitter Vacua in String Theory
• Towards Inflation in String Theory
• A Dynamical Approach to the Cosmological Constant
• Interaction Rates in String Gas Cosmology
• Why do we live in 3+1 dimensions?
• Observing Trans-Planckian Signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background

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