Quintessential brane cosmology

TL;DR

This paper explores a braneworld cosmology model where a three-brane moves in a five-dimensional bulk, leading to a modified Friedmann equation that can explain late-time cosmic acceleration similar to quintessence.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of braneworld models with a moving brane in a dilatonic bulk, showing how they can produce late-time acceleration consistent with observations.

Findings

The model can produce late-time acceleration without dark energy.

Parameter estimates align with current cosmological bounds.

The effective quintessence-like term arises naturally from brane dynamics.

Abstract

We study a class of braneworlds where the cosmological evolution arises as the result of the movement of a three-brane in a five-dimensional static dilatonic bulk, with and without reflection symmetry. The resulting four-dimensional Friedmann equation includes a term which, for a certain range of the parameters, effectively works as a quintessence component, producing an acceleration of the universe at late times. Using current observations and bounds derived from big-bang nucleosynthesis we estimate the parameters that characterize the model.