Towards a New Paradigm: Relativity in Configuration Space

Abstract

We consider the possibility that the basic space of physics is not spacetime, but configuration space. We illustrate this on the example with a system of gravitationally interacting point particles. It turns out that such system can be described by the minimal length action in a multidimensional configuration space C with a block diagonal metric. Allowing for more general metrics and curvatures of C, we step beyond the ordinary general relativity in spacetime. The latter theory is then an approximation to the general relativity in C. Other sorts of configuration spaces can also be considered, for instance those associated with extended objects, such as strings and branes. This enables a deeper understanding of the geometric principle behind string theory, and an insight on the occurrence of Yang-Mills and gravitational fields at the `fundamental level'.