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Here the sphere's “volume” is its intrinsic $(N-1)$-dimensional area, not the volume of the enclosed ball. Write ${\Omega }_{N-1}$ for the area of the unit sphere. The Gaussian integral givesFor completeness the one-dimensional integral is positive and its square is $2\pi {\int }_0^{\infty }\rho e^{-{\rho }^2}d\rho =\pi$. In hyperspherical coordinates, the same integral isThe substitution is $u={\rho }^2$, and the last integral defines the Gamma function. Equating the two evaluations and scaling lengths by $r$ proves

Take $D$ to mean spacetime dimension, so the number of spatial dimensions is $d=D-1$. This convention is needed when comparing five-dimensional spacetime with four-dimensional spacetime. For a point charge $q$, Gauss's law in $d$ spatial dimensions givesUsing $E_r=-{\varphi }^{\prime }(r)$ and choosing $\varphi (\infty )=0$ for $d>2$ givesThe Green function of the Laplacian with $-{\nabla }^2{G}_d={\delta }^{(d)}$ is consequently $G_d(r)=1/[(d-2){\Omega }_{d-1}{r}^{d-2}]$. Define the gravitational Poisson coupling ${\kappa }_D$ by ${\nabla }^2\Psi ={\kappa }_{D}M{\delta }^{(d)}$, and use acceleration $\mathbf{g}=-\nabla \Psi$. The same flux calculation givesThis explicitly fixes the normalization of the gravitational coupling: in four dimensions ${\kappa }_4=4\pi G_4$, so ${\Psi }_4=-G_{4}M/r$. If a higher-dimensional Newton constant is instead defined by the force law $|\mathbf{g}|=G_{D}M/r^{D-2}$, then ${\kappa }_D={\Omega }_{D-2}{G}_D$ in the displayed expression. In all conventions the force scales as $r^{-(D-2)}$ and the potential as $r^{-(D-3)}$. If “$D$ dimensions” denotes spatial dimensions instead, replace $d$ by $D$ and the potential exponent is $D-2$.

For $d=2$, integration gives $\varphi =-q\log (r/r_0)/(2\pi {\epsilon }_3)$ and $\Psi ={\kappa }_{3}M\log (r/r_0)/(2\pi )$ for the Poisson-normalized gravitational model; these logarithmic potentials have no zero-at-infinity convention. For $d=1$, a fundamental solution of the negative Laplacian is $G_1(x)=-|x|/2$, giving linear potentials up to an additive homogeneous solution.

Now compactify the fourth spatial coordinate $y$ on a circle of circumference $L=2\pi R$, retaining three noncompact coordinates with radial distance $r$. In uncompactified five-dimensional spacetime, $G_4(r,y)=1/[4{\pi }^2(r^2+y^2)]$. A periodic point source is therefore represented by its images:For $r/L\to \infty$, write the sum as $r^{-2}{\sum }_n[1+(nL/r{)}^2{]}^{-1}$ on the source slice $y=0$. The spacing $L/r$ tends to zero, so its Riemann sum approaches the integrable function's integral:Thus the compactified Green function is asymptotic to $1/(4\pi Lr)$, already proving the four-dimensional inverse-distance law.

An exact expression makes the crossover transparent. The Fourier transform of $(r^2+y^2{)}^{-1}$ is $\pi e^{-r|k|}/r$, obtained by closing the integration contour around $y=ir$ or $-ir$. Applying the Poisson summation formula then gives, at $y=0$,The last equality sums a geometric series. Hence the point-source potential with one compact spatial dimension isAt short distances $r\ll L$, $\coth (\pi r/L)\sim L/(\pi r)$ and these reproduce the five-dimensional $1/r^2$ potentials. At long distances $r\gg L$, the hyperbolic factor is $1+O(e^{-2\pi r/L})$, giving the four-dimensional $1/r$ potentials with effective Poisson couplings ${\epsilon }_4=L{\epsilon }_5$ and ${\kappa }_4={\kappa }_5/L$. Equivalently only the massless Kaluza-Klein mode survives at long distance, while the massive modes contribute exponentially suppressed terms.