Non-minimal warm inflation and perturbations on the warped DGP brane with modified induced gravity

We construct a warm inflation model with inflaton field non-minimally coupled to induced gravity on a warped DGP brane. We incorporate possible modification of the induced gravity on the brane in the spirit of f(R)-gravity. We study cosmological perturbations in this setup. In the case of two field inflation such as warm inflation, usually entropy perturbations are generated. While it is expected that in the case of one field inflation these perturbations to be removed, we show that even in the absence of the radiation field, entropy perturbations are generated in our setup due to non-minimal coupling and modification of the induced gravity. We study the effect of dissipation on the inflation parameters of this extended braneworld scenario.     

Wilson line inflation

We present a general setup for inflation in string theory where the inflaton field corresponds to Wilson lines in compact space in the presence of magnetic fluxes. T-dualities and limits on the value of the magnetic fluxes relate this system to the standard D-brane inflation scenarios, such as brane-antibrane inflation, D3/D7 brane inflation and different configurations of branes at angles. This can then be seen as a generalised approach to inflation from open string modes. Inflation ends when the Wilson lines achieve a critical value and an open string mode becomes tachyonic. Then hybrid-like inflation, including its cosmic string remnants, is realized in string theory beyond the brane annihilation picture. Our formalism can be incorporated within flux-induced moduli stabilisation mechanisms in type IIB strings. Also, contrary to the standard D-brane separation, Wilson lines can be considered in heterotic string models. We provide explicit examples to illustrate similarities and differences of our mechanism to D-brane inflation. In particular we present an example in which the η problem present in brane inflation models is absent in our case. We have examples with both blue and red tilted spectral index and remnant cosmic string tension .     

Reheating a multi-throat universe by brane motion

We propose a mechanism of reheating after inflation in multi-throat scenarios of warped extra dimensions. Validity of an effective field theory on the standard model (SM) brane requires that the position of the SM brane during inflation be different from the position after inflation. The latter is supposed to be near the tip of the SM throat but the former is not. After inflation, when the Hubble expansion rate becomes sufficiently low, the SM brane starts moving towards the tip and eventually oscillates. The SM fields are excited by the brane motion and the universe is reheated. Since interaction between the brane position modulus and the SM fields is suppressed only by the local string scale, the modulus effectively decays into the SM fields.     

Gravity in the randall-sundrum brane world

We discuss the weak gravitational field created by isolated matter sources in the Randall-Sundrum brane world. For the case of a single wall of positive tension, the field stays localized near the wall if the source is stationary. We calculate the leading Kaluza-Klein corrections to the linearized gravitational field of a nonrelativistic spherical object, which is different from the Schwarzschild solution at large distances. In the case of two branes of opposite tension, linearized Brans-Dicke (BD) gravity is recovered on either wall, with different BD parameters. On the wall with positive tension the BD parameter is larger than 3000 provided that the separation between walls is larger than 4 times the AdS radius. The gravitational field due to shadow matter is also considered.     

Inflation and late-time acceleration in braneworld cosmological models with varying brane tension

Braneworld models with variable brane tension λ introduce a new degree of freedom that allows for evolving gravitational and cosmological constants, the latter being a natural candidate for dark energy. We consider a thermodynamic interpretation of the varying brane tension models, by showing that the field equations with variable λ can be interpreted as describing matter creation in a cosmological framework. The particle creation rate is determined by the variation rate of the brane tension, as well as by the brane–bulk energy-matter transfer rate. We investigate the effect of a variable brane tension on the cosmological evolution of the Universe, in the framework of a particular model in which the brane tension is an exponentially dependent function of the scale factor. The resulting cosmology shows the presence of an initial inflationary expansion, followed by a decelerating phase, and by a smooth transition towards a late accelerated de Sitter type expansion. The varying brane tension is also responsible for the generation of the matter in the Universe (reheating period). The physical constraints on the model parameters, resulting from the observational cosmological data, are also investigated.     

Cosmic (Super)String Constraints from 21 cm Radiation

We calculate the contribution of cosmic strings arising from a phase transition in the early Universe, or cosmic superstrings arising from brane inflation, to the cosmic 21 cm power spectrum at redshifts z > or =30. Future experiments can exploit this effect to constrain the cosmic string tension G mu and probe virtually the entire brane inflation model space allowed by current observations. Although current experiments with a collecting area of approximately 1 km2 will not provide any useful constraints, future experiments with a collecting area of 10(4)-10(6) km2 covering the cleanest 10% of the sky can, in principle, constrain cosmic strings with tension G mu > or = 10(-10)-10(-12) (superstring/phase transition mass scale >10(13) GeV).     

How Can Brane Inflation Solve the Fine-Tuning Problem?

Brane inflation can provide a promising framework for solving the fine-tuning problem in standard inflationary models. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the mechanism by which this can be achieved. By considering the supersymmetric two-stage inflation model we show that the initial fine-tuning of the coupling parameter can be controlled through a relation between the coupling parameter and the brane tension.     

Radion-induced brane preheating

When the interbrane separation in the compact Randall-Sundrum model is stabilized using the Goldberger-Wise mechanism, a potential is generated for the four-dimensional field, the radion, that encodes this separation. Coherent oscillations of the radion in the early universe will produce an exponential growth in the number of brane particles due to parametric amplification. We describe the conditions necessary for this process, which resembles the preheating phase in inflation, and show the exponential growth in the case of a scalar field confined to a brane.     

Generating the curvature perturbation at the end of inflation in string theory

In brane inflationary scenarios, the cosmological perturbations are supposed to originate from the vacuum fluctuations of the inflaton field corresponding to the position of the brane. We show that a significant, and possibly dominant, contribution to the curvature perturbation is generated at the end of inflation through the vacuum fluctuations of fields, other than the inflaton, which are light during the inflationary trajectory and become heavy at the brane-antibrane annihilation. These fields appear generically in string compactifications where the background geometry has exact or approximate isometries and parametrize the internal angular directions of the brane.     

Some Properties of Multigravity Theories and Discretized Brane Worlds

We review some properties of solutions to 5D Einstein gravity with a discrete fifth dimension. Those properties depend on the discretization scheme we use. In particular, we find that the neglect of the lapse field (along the discretized direction) gives rise to Randall–Sundrum-type metric with a negative tension brane. However, no brane source is required. The inclusion of the lapse field gives rise to solutions whose continuum limit is gauge fixed by the discretization scheme. We show also that the models allow a continuous mass spectrum for the gravitons with an effective 4D interaction at small scales.     

Wave dynamics of a six-dimensional black hole localized on a tensional three-brane

We study the quasinormal modes and the late-time tail behavior of scalar perturbation in the background of a black hole localized on a tensional three-brane in a world with two large extra dimensions. We find that finite brane tension modifies the standard results in the wave dynamics for the case of a black hole on a brane with completely negligible tension. We argue that the wave dynamics contains the imprint of the extra dimensions.     

Brane universes with Gauss-Bonnet-induced-gravity

The DGP brane world model allows us to get the observed late time acceleration via modified gravity, without the need for a “dark energy” field. This can then be generalised by the inclusion of high energy terms, in the form of a Gauss-Bonnet bulk. This is the basis of the Gauss-Bonnet-Induced-Gravity (GBIG) model explored here with both early and late time modifications to the cosmological evolution. Recently the simplest GBIG models (Minkowski bulk and no brane tension) have been analysed. Two of the three possible branches in these models start with a finite density “Big-Bang” and with late time acceleration. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of more general models where we include a bulk cosmological constant and brane tension. We show that by including these factors it is possible to have late time phantom behaviour.     

On the problem of vacuum energy in brane theories

We point out that modern brane theories suffer from a severe vacuum energy problem. To be specific, the Casimir energy associated with the matter fields confined to the brane, is stemming from the one and the same localization mechanism which forms the brane itself, and is thus generically unavoidable. Possible practical solutions are discussed, including in particular spontaneously broken supersymmetry, and quantum mechanically induced brane tension.     

Evolution of massive scalar fields in the spacetime of a tense brane black hole

In the spacetime of a d-dimensional static tense brane black hole we elaborate the mechanism by which massive scalar fields decay. The metric of a six-dimensional black hole pierced by a topological defect is especially interesting. It corresponds to a black hole residing on a tensional 3-brane embedded in a six-dimensional spacetime, and this solution has gained importance due to the planned accelerator experiments. It happened that the intermediate asymptotic behaviour of the fields in question was determined by an oscillatory inverse power-law. We confirm our investigations by numerical calculations for five- and six-dimensional cases. It turned out that the greater the brane tension is, the faster massive scalar field decay in the considered spacetimes.     

Brane world solution to the cosmological constant problem

We consider a model with two parallel (positive tension) 3-branes separated by a distance L in five-dimensional spacetime. If the interbrane space is anti--de Sitter, or is not precisely anti--de Sitter but contains no event horizons, the effective four-dimensional cosmological constant seen by observers on one of the branes (chosen to be the visible brane) becomes exponentially small as L grows large.     

Cosmology with rolling tachyon

We examine the possibility of rolling tachyon to play the dual role of inflaton at early epochs and dark matter at late times. We argue that enough inflation can be generated with the rolling tachyon either by invoking the large number of branes or brane world assisted inflation. However, reheating is problematic in this model. On leave from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110 025, India     

“Mass inflation” with lightlike branes

We discuss properties of a new class of p-brane models, describing intrinsically lightlike branes for any world-volume dimension, in various gravitational backgrounds of interest in the context of black hole physics. One of the characteristic features of these lightlike p-branes is that the brane tension appears as an additional nontrivial dynamical world-volume degree of freedom. Codimension one lightlike brane dynamics requires that bulk space with a bulk metric of spherically symmetric type must possess an event horizon which is automatically occupied by the lightlike brane while its tension evolves exponentially with time. The latter phenomenon is an analog of the well known “mass inflation” effect in black holes.      

Letter: Brane Cosmology with a van der Waals Equation of State

The evolution of a Universe confined onto a 3-brane embedded in a five-dimensional space-time is investigated where the cosmological fluid on the brane is modeled by the van der Waals equation of state. It is shown that the Universe on the brane evolves in such a manner that three distinct periods concerning its acceleration field are attained: (a) an initial accelerated epoch where the van der Waals fluid behaves like a scalar field with a negative pressure; (b) a past decelerated period which has two contributions, one of them is related to the van der Waals fluid which behaves like a matter field with a positive pressure, whereas the other contribution comes from a term of the Friedmann equation on the brane which is inversely proportional to the scale factor to the fourth power and can be interpreted as a radiation field, and (c) a present accelerated phase due to a cosmological constant on the brane.     

A braneworld universe from colliding bubbles

Much work has been devoted to the phenomenology and cosmology of the so-called braneworld universe, where the (3+1)-dimensional universe familiar to us lies on a brane surrounded by a (4+1)-dimensional bulk spacetime that is essentially empty except for a negative cosmological constant and the various modes associated with gravity. For such a braneworld cosmology, the difficulty of justifying a set of preferred initial conditions inevitably arises. The various proposals for inflation restricted to the brane only partially explain the homogeneity and isotropy of the resulting braneworld universe because the three-dimensional homogeneity and isotropy of the bulk must be assumed a priori. In this Letter we propose a mechanism by which a brane surrounded by AdS space arises naturally in such a way that the homogeneity and isotropy of both the brane and the bulk are guaranteed. We postulate an initial false vacuum phase of (4+1)-dimensional de Sitter, or possibly Minkowski, space subsequently decaying to a true vacuum of anti-de Sitter space, assumed discretely degenerate. This decay takes place through bubble nucleation. When two bubbles of the true AdS vacuum eventually collide, because of the degeneracy of the true AdS vacuum, a brane (or domain wall) inevitably forms separating the two AdS phases. It is on this brane that we live. The SO(3,1) symmetry of the collision geometry ensures the three-dimensional spatial homogeneity and isotropy of the universe on the brane as well as of the bulk. In the semi-classical (→0) limit, this SO(3,1) symmetry is exact. We sketch how the leading quantum corrections translate into cosmological perturbations.