Conformal p-branes as a Source of Structure in Spacetime

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model where conformal p-branes interacting with spacetime metrics can lead to the formation of structures and variable cosmological constants, offering insights into the emergence of inhomogeneity in the universe.

Contribution

It introduces a conformal p-brane model that explains structure formation and multivalued cosmological constants in spacetime, extending to various nonlinear gravitational Lagrangians.

Findings

Structure formation in spacetime due to p-branes.

Emergence of multivalued, domain-dependent cosmological constants.

Applicability to a broad class of nonlinear gravitational theories.

Abstract

We discuss a model of a conformal p-brane interacting with the world volume metric and connection. The purpose of the model is to suggest a mechanism by which gravity coupled to p-branes leads to the formation of structure rather than homogeneity in spacetime. Furthermore, we show that the formation of structure is accompanied by the appearance of a multivalued cosmological constant, i.e., one which may take on different values in different domains, or cells, of spacetime. The above results apply to a broad class of non linear gravitational lagrangians as long as metric and connection on the p-brane manifold are treated as independent variables.