| Mar 17, 2012 |
Probing the concept of extra dimensions with carbon nanotubes
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(Nanowerk News) New work by theoretical physicists in Sweden intends to draw the attention of both communities, particle and condensed matter physics, to the illustrative analogies between Kaluza-Klein theories and carbon nanotube systems.
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In a recent paper ("Probing the Concept of Extra Dimensions with Carbon Nanotubes") they point out a conceptual analogy between the physics of extra spatial dimensions and the physics of carbon nanotubes which arises for principle reasons, although the corresponding energy scales are at least ten orders of magnitude apart.
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For low energies, one can apply the Kaluza–Klein description to both types of systems, leading to two completely different but consistent interpretations of the underlying physics. In particular, they discuss in detail the Kaluza–Klein description of armchair and zig-zag carbon nanotubes.
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Furthermore, they describe how certain experimental results for carbon nanotubes could be re-interpreted in terms of the Kaluza–Klein description.
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Finally, they present ideas for new measurements that could allow to probe concepts of models with extra spatial dimensions in table-top experiments, providing further links between condensed matter and particle physics.
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