Cosmology and Brane Worlds: A Review

TL;DR

This review explores the cosmological implications of brane world models, including single and multiple brane scenarios with scalar fields, analyzing their geometry, dynamics, and open problems in higher-dimensional cosmology.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive pedagogical overview of brane world cosmology, including models with scalar fields and multi-brane systems, highlighting differences from Anti-de Sitter space.

Findings

Analysis of single brane in five-dimensional Anti-de Sitter space.

Discussion of bulk scalar field effects on brane cosmology.

Insights into brane collisions and open problems in the field.

Abstract

Cosmological consequences of the brane world scenario are reviewed in a pedagogical manner. According to the brane world idea, the standard model particles are confined on a hyper--surface (a so--called brane), which is embedded in a higher--dimensional spacetime (the so--called bulk). We begin our review with the simplest consistent brane world model: a single brane embedded in a five--dimensional Anti-de Sitter space--time. Then we include a scalar field in the bulk and discuss in detail the difference with the Anti-de Sitter case. The geometry of the bulk space--time is also analysed in some depth. Finally, we investigate the cosmology of a system with two branes and a bulk scalar field. We comment on brane collisions and summarize some open problems of brane world cosmology.