Brane Junctions in the Randall-Sundrum Scenario

TL;DR

This paper explores static solutions for intersecting branes in the Randall-Sundrum model, highlighting conditions for their existence and implications for the cosmological constant problem.

Contribution

It provides new conditions for brane junction solutions, emphasizing the necessity of force balance and parameter constraints, advancing understanding of brane configurations in extra-dimensional models.

Findings

Solutions exist only if forces at the junction cancel

Conditions relate brane tensions and cosmological constants

Implications for addressing the cosmological constant problem

Abstract

We present static solutions to Einstein's equations corresponding to branes at various angles intersecting in a single 3-brane. Such configurations may be useful for building models with localized gravity via the Randall-Sundrum mechanism. We find that such solutions may exist only if the mechanical forces acting on the junction exactly cancel. In addition to this constraint there are further conditions that the parameters of the theory have to satisfy. We find that at least one of these involves only the brane tensions and cosmological constants, and thus can not have a dynamical origin. We present these conditions in detail for two simple examples. We discuss the nature of the cosmological constant problem in the framework of these scenarios, and outline the desired features of the brane configurations which may bring us closer towards the resolution of the cosmological constant problem.