Dynamics of Brane-World Cosmological Models

Abstract

We show that generically the initial singularity is isotropic in spatially homogeneous cosmological models in the brane-world scenario. We then argue that it is plausible that the initial singularity is isotropic in typical brane world cosmological models. Therefore, brane cosmology naturally gives rise to a set of initial data that provide the conditions for inflation to subsequently take place, thereby solving the initial conditions problem and leading to a self--consistent and viable cosmology.Comment: Final version. To appear in Physical Revie