Inspired by the Randall-Sundrum (RS) solution to the weak-scale hierarchy problem we present a new five-dimensional brane-world model. While many cosmological implications of RS-type scenarios have been considered, the question of inflation is still relatively unexplored. In this work we investigate the dynamics induced by fluctuations in the extra dimension and find that the so-called radion can be used for inflation. A class of models are found which simultaneously allow for radius stabilization by utilizing a bulk scalar field with a potential in the bulk and on the branes. The coupled radion-scalar field system is analyzed from the five-dimensional point of view and is seen to consistently reduce to a four-dimensional Friedmann-Robertson-Walker-like cosmology. An analysis of the constraints imposed during inflation fixes the radion mass and we speculate on the possibility that the new physics at work here may be distinguishable from typical four-dimensional models.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.81447 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Trudeau, Joel |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Physics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002179236, proquestno: AAIMR06462, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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