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Dynamical compactification from de Sitter space

Sean M. Carrolla, Matthew C. Johnsona and Lisa Randallb

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We show that D-dimensional de Sitter space is unstable to the nucleation of non-singular geometries containing spacetime regions with different numbers of macroscopic dimensions, leading to a dynamical mechanism of compactification. These and other solutions to Einstein gravity with flux and a cosmological constant are constructed by performing a dimensional reduction under the assumption of q-dimensional spherical symmetry in the full D-dimensional geometry. In addition to the familiar black holes, black branes, and compactification solutions we identify a number of new geometries, some of which are completely non-singular. The dynamical compactification mechanism populates lower-dimensional vacua very differently from false vacuum eternal inflation, which occurs entirely within the context of four-dimensions. We outline the phenomenology of the nucleation rates, finding that the dimensionality of the vacuum plays a key role and that among vacua of the same dimensionality, the rate is highest for smaller values of the cosmological constant. We consider the cosmological constant problem and propose a novel model of slow-roll inflation that is triggered by the compactification process.

Keywords

Classical Theories of Gravity

p-branes

Flux compactifications

Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM

 

E-print Number: 0904.3115

Cited: by |

Refers: to

PACS

11.25.Mj Compactification and four-dimensional models

02.40.-k Geometry, differential geometry, and topology

04.20.Gz Spacetime topology, causal structure, spinor structure

04.70.-s Physics of black holes

04.50.-h Higher-dimensional gravity and other theories of gravity

98.80.Es Observational cosmology (including Hubble constant, distance scale, cosmological constant, early Universe, etc)

Subjects

Mathematical physics

Gravitation and cosmology

Particle physics and field theory

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 11 (November 2009)

Received 12 October 2009, accepted for publication 30 October 2009

Published 20 November 2009



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