Warped brane-world compactification with Gauss-Bonnet term

In the Randall-Sundrum (RS) brane-world model a singular delta-function source is matched by the second derivative of the warp factor. So one should take possible curvature corrections in the effective action of the RS models in a Gauss-Bonnet (GB) form. We present a linearized treatment of gravity in the RS brane-world with the Gauss-Bonnet modification to Einstein gravity. We give explicit expressions for the Neumann propagator in arbitrary D dimensions and show that a bulk GB term gives, along with a tower of Kaluza-Klein modes in the bulk, a massless graviton on the brane, as in the standard RS model. Moreover, a non-trivial GB coupling can allow a new branch of solutions with finite Planck scale and no naked bulk singularity, which might be useful to avoid some of the previously known ``no--go theorems'' for RS brane-world compactifications.Comment: 23 pages, typos in Secs. 5 & 6 corrected, expanded/published version (IJMPA

Reconstructing a model of quintessential inflation

We present an explicit cosmological model where inflation and dark energy both could arise from the dynamics of the same scalar field. We present our discussion in the framework where the inflaton field $\phi$ attains a nearly constant velocity $m_P^{-1} |d\phi/dN|\equiv \alpha+\beta \exp(\beta N)$ (where $N\equiv \ln a$ is the e-folding time) during inflation. We show that the model with $|\alpha|<0.25$ and $\beta<0$ can easily satisfy inflationary constraints, including the spectral index of scalar fluctuations ($n_s=0.96\pm 0.013$), tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r<0.28$) and also the bound imposed on $\Omega_\phi$ during the nucleosynthesis epoch ($\Omega_\phi (1 {\rm MeV})<0.1$). In our construction, the scalar field potential always scales proportionally to the square of the Hubble expansion rate. One may thereby account for the two vastly different energy scales associated with the Hubble parameters at early and late epochs. The inflaton energy could also produce an observationally significant effective dark energy at a late epoch without violating local gravity tests.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures; added refs, published versio

Warped compactification on curved manifolds

The characterization of a six- (or seven)-dimensional internal manifold with metric as having positive, zero or negative curvature is expected to be an important aspect of warped compactifications in supergravity. In this context, Douglas and Kallosh recently pointed out that a compact internal space with negative curvature could help to construct four-dimensional de Sitter solutions only if the extra dimensions are strongly warped or there are large stringy corrections. That is, the problem of finding 4-dimensional de Sitter solutions is well posed, if all extra dimensions are physically compact, which is called a no-go theorem. Here, we show that the above conclusion does not extend to a general class of warped compactifications in classical supergravity that allow a non-compact direction or cosmological solutions for which the internal space is asymptotic to a cone over a product of compact Einstein spaces or spheres. For clarity, we present classical solutions that compactify higher-dimensional spacetime to produce a Robertson--Walker universe with de Sitter-type expansion plus one extra non-compact direction. Such models are found to admit both an effective four-dimensional Newton constant that remains finite and a normalizable zero-mode graviton wavefunction. We also exhibit the possibility of obtaining 4D de Sitter solutions by including the effect of fluxes (p-form field strengths).Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure; v5 significant changes in the presentation, published (journal) versio

Accelerating universes from compactification on a warped conifold

We find cosmological solution corresponding to compactification of 10d supergravity on a warped conifold that easily circumvents Gibbons's original "no-go" theorem, providing new perspectives for the study of supergravity or superstring theory in cosmological backgrounds. With stabilized volume moduli, the model can explain a physical universe undergoing an accelerated expansion in the 4d Einstein frame, for a sufficiently long time. The solution found in the limit that the warp factor dependent on the radial coordinate $y$ is extremized (giving a constant warping) is smooth and it supports a flat four-dimensional Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology undergoing a period of accelerated expansion with slowly rolling or stabilized volume moduli

Accelerating universe from warped extra dimensions

Accelerating universe or the existence of a small and positive cosmological constant is probably the most pressing obstacle as well as opportunity to significantly improving the models of four-dimensional cosmology from fundamental theories of gravity, including string theory. In seeking to resolve this problem, one naturally wonders if the real world can somehow be interpreted as an inflating de Sitter brane embedded in a higher-dimensional spacetime described by warped geometry. In this scenario, the four-dimensional cosmological constant may be uniquely determined in terms of two length scales: one is a scale associated with the size of extra dimensions and the other is a scale associated with the expansion rate of our universe. In some specific cases, these two scales are complementary to each other. This result is demonstrated here by presenting some explicit and completely non-singular de Sitter space dS$_4$ solutions of vacuum Einstein equations in five and ten dimensions.Comment: 7 pages; extended (from journal) version, minor typos fixed, refs adde

Black Holes, Entropy Bound and Causality Violation

The gravity/gauge theory duality has provided us a way of studying QCD at short distances from straightforward calculations in classical general relativity. Among numerous results obtained so far, one of the most striking is the universality of the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density. For all gauge theories with Einstein gravity dual, this ratio is \eta/s=1/4\pi. However, in general higher-curvature gravity theories, including two concrete models under discussion - the Gauss-Bonnet gravity and the (Riemann)^2 gravity - the ratio \eta/s can be smaller than 1/4\pi (thus violating the conjecture bound), equal to 1/4\pi or even larger than 1/4\pi. As we probe spacetime at shorter distances, there arises an internal inconsistency in the theory, such as a violation of microcausality, which is correlated with a classical limit on black hole entropy.Comment: 8 pages, no figures; Invited contribution to appear in the Proceedings of the 75 Years since Solvay, Singapore, Nov 2008, (World Scientific, Singapore, 2009

Effective Lagrangian from Higher Curvature Terms: Absence of vDVZ Discontinuity in AdS Space

We argue that the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity arising in the $M^2 \to 0$ limit of the massive graviton through an explicit Pauli-Fierz mass term could be absent in anti de Sitter space. This is possible if the graviton can acquire mass spontaneously from the higher curvature terms or/and the massless limit $M^2\to 0$ is attained faster than the cosmological constant $\Lambda \to 0$. We discuss the effects of higher-curvature couplings and of an explicit cosmological term ($\Lambda$) on stability of such continuity and of massive excitations.Comment: 23 pages, Latex, the version to appear in Class. Quant. Gra

Late-time Cosmic Dynamics from M-theory

We consider the behaviour of the cosmological acceleration for time-dependent hyperbolic and flux compactifications of M-theory, with an exponential potential. For flat and closed cosmologies it is seen that a positive acceleration is always transient for both compactifications. For open cosmologies, both compactifications can give at late times periods of positive acceleration. As a function of proper time this acceleration has a power law decay and can be either positive, negative or oscillatory.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 2 figure

On compatibility of string effective action with an accelerating universe

In this paper, we fully investigate the cosmological effects of the moduli dependent one-loop corrections to the gravitational couplings of the string effective action to explain the cosmic acceleration problem in early (and/or late) universe. These corrections comprise a Gauss-Bonnet (GB) invariant multiplied by universal non-trivial functions of the common modulus $\sigma$ and the dilaton $\phi$. The model exhibits several features of cosmological interest, including the transition between deceleration and acceleration phases. By considering some phenomenologically motivated ansatzs for one of the scalars and/or the scale factor (of the universe), we also construct a number of interesting inflationary potentials. In all examples under consideration, we find that the model leads only to a standard inflation ($w \geq -1$) when the numerical coefficient $\delta$ associated with modulus-GB coupling is positive, while the model can lead also to a non-standard inflation ($w<-1$), if $\delta$ is negative. In the absence of (or trivial) coupling between the GB term and the scalars, there is no crossing between the $w -1$ phases, while this is possible with non-trivial GB couplings, even for constant dilaton phase of the standard picture. Within our model, after a sufficient amount of e-folds of expansion, the rolling of both fields $\phi$ and $\sigma$ can be small. In turn, any possible violation of equivalence principle or deviations from the standard general relativity may be small enough to easily satisfy all astrophysical and cosmological constraints.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures; v2 significant changes in notations, appendix and refs added; v3 significant revisions, refs added; v4 appendix extended, new refs, published versio

Towards inflation and dark energy cosmologies from modified Gauss-Bonnet theory

We consider a physically viable cosmological model that has a field dependent Gauss-Bonnet coupling in its effective action, in addition to a standard scalar field potential. The presence of such terms in the four dimensional effective action gives rise to several novel effects, such as a four dimensional flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe undergoing a cosmic inflation at early epoch, as well as a cosmic acceleration at late times. The model predicts, during inflation, spectra of both density perturbations and gravitational waves that may fall well within the experimental bounds. Furthermore, this model provides a mechanism for reheating of the early universe, which is similar to a model with some friction terms added to the equation of motion of the scalar field, which can imitate energy transfer from the scalar field to matterComment: 35 pages, 21 eps figs; section 6 expanded improving explanations, refs added, final in JCA