Towards the entropy of gravity time-dependent models via the Cardy-Verlinde formula

For models with several time-dependent components generalized entropies can be defined. This is shown for the Bianchi type IX model. We first derive the Cardy-Verlinde formula under the assumption that the first law of thermodynamics is valid. This leads to an explicit expression of the total entropy associated with this type of universes. Assuming the validity of the Cardy entropy formula, we obtain expressions for the corresponding Bekenstein, Bekenstein-Hawking and Hubble entropies. We discuss the validity of the Cardy-Verlinde formula and possible extensions of the outlined procedure to other time-dependent models.Comment: 13 page

A Note on Solitons in Brane Worlds

We obtain the zero mode effective action for gravitating objects in the bulk of dilatonic domain walls. Without additional fields included in the bulk action, the zero mode effective action reproduces the action in one lower dimensions obtained through the ordinary Kaluza-Klein (KK) compactification, only when the transverse (to the domain wall) component of the bulk metric does not have non-trivial term depending on the domain wall worldvolume coordinates. With additional fields included in the bulk action, non-trivial dependence of the transverse metric component on the domain wall worldvolume coordinates appears to be essential in reproducing the lower-dimensional action obtained via the ordinary KK compactification. We find, in particular, that the effective action for the charged (p+1)-brane in the domain wall bulk reproduces the action for the p-brane in one lower dimensions.Comment: 13 pages, LaTe

Supergravity, Non-Conformal Field Theories and Brane-Worlds

We consider the supergravity dual descriptions of non-conformal super Yang-Mills theories realized on the world-volume of Dp-branes. We use the dual description to compute stress-energy tensor and current correlators. We apply the results to the study of dilatonic brane-worlds described by non-conformal field theories coupled to gravity. We find that brane-worlds based on D4 and D5 branes exhibit a localization of gauge and gravitational fields. We calculate the corrections to the Newton and Coulomb laws in these theories.Comment: 24 pages, Latex, 2 figure

Simple quantum cosmology: Vacuum energy and initial state

A static non-singular 10-dimensional closed Friedmann universe of Planck size, filled with a perfect fluid with an equation of state with w = -2/3, can arise spontaneously by a quantum fluctuation from nothing in 11-dimensional spacetime. A quantum transition from this state can initiate the inflationary quantum cosmology outlined in Ref. 2 [General Relativity and Gravitation 33, 1415, 2001 - gr-qc/0103021]. With no fine-tuning, that cosmology predicts about 60 e-folds of inflation and a vacuum energy density depending only on the number of extra space dimensions (seven), G, h, c and the ratio between the strength of gravity and the strength of the strong force. The fraction of the total energy in the universe represented by this vacuum energy depends on the Hubble constant. Hubble constant estimates from WMAP, SDSS, the Hubble Key Project and Sunyaev-Zeldovich and X-ray flux measurements range from 60 to 72 km/(Mpc sec). With a mid-range Hubble constant of 65 km/(Mpc sec), the model in Ref. 2 predicts Omega-sub-Lambda = 0.7Comment: To be published in General Relativity and Gravitation, Vol. 37, May 2005. 5 pages, no figure

Gauge-Dependent Cosmological "Constant"

When the cosmological constant of spacetime is derived from the 5D induced-matter theory of gravity, we show that a simple gauge transformation changes it to a variable measure of the vacuum which is infinite at the big bang and decays to an astrophysically-acceptable value at late epochs. We outline implications of this for cosmology and galaxy formation.Comment: 14 pages, no figures, expanded version to be published in Class. Quantum Gra

Thermodynamical Behaviour of Composite Stringy Black Holes

We study the thermodynamical and geometrical behaviour of the black holes that arise as solutions of the heterotic string action. We discuss the near-horizon scaling behaviour of the solutions that are described by two-dimensional Anti-de Sitter Space AdS(2). We find that finite-energy excitations of AdS(2) are suppressed only for scaling limits characterised by a dilaton which is constant near the horizon, whereas this suppression does not occur when the dilaton is non constant

Localization of Scalar Fluctuations in a Dilatonic Brane-World Scenario

We derive and solve the full set of scalar perturbation equations for a class of $Z_2$-symmetric five-dimensional geometries generated by a bulk cosmological constant and by a 3-brane non-minimally coupled to a bulk dilaton field. The massless scalar modes, like their tensor analogues, are localized on the brane, and provide long-range four-dimensional dilatonic interactions, which are generically present even when matter on the brane carries no dilatonic charge. The shorter-range corrections induced by the continuum of massive scalar modes are always present: they persist even in the case of a trivial dilaton background (the standard Randall--Sundrum configuration) and vanishing dilatonic charges.Comment: 22 pages, late

Entropy of Non-Extreme Charged Rotating Black Holes in String Theory

We give the explicit expression for four-dimensional rotating charged black hole solutions of N=4 (or N=8) superstring vacua, parameterized by the ADM mass, four charges (two electric and two magnetic charges, each arising from a different U(1) gauge factors), and the angular momentum (as well as the asymptotic values of four toroidal moduli of two-torus and the dilaton-axion field). The explicit form of the thermodynamic entropy is parameterized in a suggestive way as a sum of the product of the `left-moving' and the `right-moving' terms, which may have an interpretation in terms of the microscopic degrees of freedom of the corresponding D-brane configuration. We also give an analogous parameterization of the thermodynamic entropy for the recently obtained five-dimensional rotating charged black holes parameterized by the ADM mass, three U(1) charges and two rotational parameters (as well as the asymptotic values of one toroidal modulus and the dilaton).Comment: 14 pages, uses RevTex, the revised version with minor corrections to appear in Phys. Rev.

A Bestiary of Higher Dimensional Taub-NUT-AdS Spacetimes

We present a menagerie of solutions to the vacuum Einstein equations in six, eight and ten dimensions. These solutions describe spacetimes which are either locally asymptotically adS or locally asymptotically flat, and which have non-trivial topology. We discuss the global structure of these solutions, and their relevance within the context of M-theory.Comment: 11 pages, LaTex(v4: Comments and references added