Brane Variation Dirac Style

Abstract

Dirac's method for variations of a brane embedded in co-dimension one is demonstrated. The variation in the location of the brane invokes a rest frame formulation of the 'sandwiched' brane action. We first demonstrate the necessity of this method by re-deriving Snell's law. Second, we apply the method to a general $N$-dimensional brane embedded in co-dimension one bulk in the presence of gravity. We re-derive the brane equations: (i) Israel junction condition, (ii) Energy/momentum conservation on the brane, and (iii) Geodetic-type equation for the brane.