arXiv subjects

Shinji Mukohyama

Publications and source records attributed to Shinji Mukohyama.

At least 271 records · Page 15Linked to original sources

arXiv2004

A Dynamical Approach to the Cosmological Constant

We consider a dynamical approach to the cosmological constant. There is a scalar field with a potential whose minimum occurs at a generic, but negative, value for the vacuum energy, and it has a non-standard kinetic term whose coefficient diverges at zero curvature as well as the standard kinetic term. Because of the divergent coefficient of the kinetic term, the lowest energy state is never achieved. Instead, the cosmological constant automatically stalls at or near zero. The merit of this model is that it is stable under radiative corrections and leads to stable dynamics, despite the singular kinetic term. The model is not complete, however, in that some reheating is required. Nonetheless, our approach can at the very least reduce fine-tuning by 60 orders of magnitude or provide a new mechanism for sampling possible cosmological constants and implementing the anthropic principle.

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arXiv2004

Ghost Inflation

We propose a new scenario for early cosmology, where an inflationary de Sitter phase is obtained with a ghost condensate. The transition to radiation dominance is triggered by the ghost itself, without any slow-roll potential. Density perturbations are generated by fluctuations around the ghost condensate and can be reliably computed in the effective field theory. The fluctuations are scale invariant as a consequence of the de Sitter symmetries, however, the size of the perturbations are parametrically different from conventional slow-roll inflation, and the inflation happens at far lower energy scales. The model makes definite predictions that distinguish it from standard inflation, and can be sharply excluded or confirmed by experiments in the near future. The tilt in the scalar spectrum is predicted to vanish (n_s=1), and the gravity wave signal is negligible. The non-Gaussianities in the spectrum are predicted to be observable: the 3-point function is determined up to an overall order 1 constant, and its magnitude is much bigger than in conventional inflation, with an equivalent f_NL ~ 100, not far from the present WMAP bounds.

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arXiv2003

Ghost Condensation and a Consistent Infrared Modification of Gravity

We propose a theoretically consistent modification of gravity in the infrared, which is compatible with all current experimental observations. This is an analog of Higgs mechanism in general relativity, and can be thought of as arising from ghost condensation--a background where a scalar field ϕhas a constant velocity, <\dotϕ> = M^2. The ghost condensate is a new kind of fluid that can fill the universe, which has the same equation of state, ρ= -p, as a cosmological constant, and can hence drive de Sitter expansion of the universe. However, unlike a cosmological constant, it is a physical fluid with a physical scalar excitation, which can be described by a systematic effective field theory at low energies. The excitation has an unusual low-energy dispersion relation ω^2 \sim k^4 / M^2. If coupled to matter directly, it gives rise to small Lorentz-violating effects and a new long-range 1/r^2 spin dependent force. In the ghost condensate, the energy that gravitates is not the same as the particle physics energy, leading to the possibility of both sources that can gravitate and antigravitate. The Newtonian potential is modified with an oscillatory behavior starting at the distance scale M_{Pl}/M^2 and the time scale M_{Pl}^2/M^3. This theory opens up a number of new avenues for attacking cosmological problems, including inflation, dark matter and dark energy.

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arXiv2003

Scaling solution, radion stabilization, and initial condition for brane-world cosmology

We propose a new, self-consistent and dynamical scenario which gives rise to well-defined initial conditions for five-dimensional brane-world cosmologies with radion stabilization. At high energies, the five-dimensional effective theory is assumed to have a scale invariance so that it admits an expanding scaling solution as a future attractor. The system automatically approaches the scaling solution and, hence, the initial condition for the subsequent low-energy brane cosmology is set by the scaling solution. At low energies, the scale invariance is broken and a radion stabilization mechanism drives the dynamics of the brane-world system. We present an exact, analytic scaling solution for a class of scale-invariant effective theories of five-dimensional brane-world models which includes the five-dimensional reduction of the Horava-Witten theory, and provide convincing evidence that the scaling solution is a future attractor.

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arXiv2002

Inhomogeneous tachyon decay, light-cone structure and D-brane network problem in tachyon cosmology

We investigate light-cone structure on the world-volume of an unstable D-brane with a tachyon decaying inhomogeneously by using a field theoretical description. It is shown that (i) light-cones governing open strings are narrower than those governing closed strings and will eventually collapse inward in all directions except at kinks, where the tachyon remains at the top of its potential; and that (ii) light-cones governing open strings at a kink will be narrowed only in the direction perpendicular to the kink surface. It is also shown that (iii) future-directed light-cones governing open strings near a kink are tilted towards the kink, compared with those governing closed strings. The result (i) implies that open strings except at kinks are redshifted, compared with closed strings, and will eventually cease to be dynamical. On the other hand, the result (ii) shows that open strings on a kink surface can move freely along the kink surface and are dynamical but do not feel the existence of the spatial dimension perpendicular to the kink surface. The result (iii) indicates that open strings near a kink have tendency to move towards the kink. Hence, the light-cone structure vividly illustrates how open strings behave during the dynamical formation of a kink. We also discuss about a possibility that the early universe has a network of various dimensional D-branes, black-branes and tachyon matter. A problem associated with the network and a possible solution to the problem are discussed.

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arXiv2002

Non-locality as an essential feature of brane worlds

Weak gravity in the brane world scenario with a scalar field in the bulk between two end-of-the-world branes is investigated by using the doubly gauge invariant formalism. We review the result that Einstein gravity is restored in the low energy limit and that high-energy corrections to Einstein gravity can be mimicked by higher derivative terms. After that, it is argued that non-locality is one of essential features of brane worlds.

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arXiv2002

Brane cosmology driven by the rolling tachyon

Brane cosmology driven by the tachyon rolling down to its ground state is investigated. We adopt an effective field theoretical description for the tachyon and Randall-Sundrum type brane world scenario. After formulating basic equations, we show that the standard cosmology with a usual scalar field can mimic the low energy behavior of the system near the tachyon ground state. We also investigate qualitative behavior of the system beyond the low energy regime for positive, negative and vanishing 4-dimensional effective cosmological constant $Λ_4=κ_5^4V(T_0)^2/12-|Λ_5|/2$, where $κ_5$ and $Λ_5$ are 5-dimensional gravitational coupling constant and (negative) cosmological constant, respectively, and $V(T_0)$ is the (positive) tension of the brane in the tachyon ground state. In particular, for $Λ_4<0$ the tachyon never settles down to its potential minimum and the universe eventually hits a big-crunch singularity.

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arXiv2002

Brane Gravity at Low Energy

Four dimensional gravity in the low energy limit of a higher dimensional theory has been expected to be a (generalized) Brans-Dicke theory. A subtle point in brane world scenarios is that the system of four dimensional effective gravitational equations is not closed due to bulk gravitational waves and bulk scalars. Nonetheless, weak gravity on the brane can be analyzed completely. We revisit the theory of weak brane gravity using gauge-invariant gravitational and scalar perturbations around a background warped geometry with a bulk scalar between two flat branes. We obtain a simple condition for the radion stabilization in terms of the scalar field potentials. We show that for general potentials of the scalar field which provides radion stabilization and a general conformal transformation to a frame in which matter on the branes are minimally coupled to the metric, 4-dimensional Einstein gravity, not BD gravity, is restored at low energies on either brane. In contrast, in RS brane world scenario without a bulk scalar, low energy gravity is BD one. We conjecture that in general brane world scenarios with more than one scalar field, one will again encounter the situation that low energy gravity is not described by the Einstein theory. Equipped with the weak gravity results, we discuss the properties of 4d brane gravitational equations, in particular, the value and sign of 4d Newton's gravitational coupling.

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arXiv2002

Doubly-gauge-invariant formalism of brane-world cosmological perturbations

We review the doubly gauge invariant formalism of cosmological perturbations in the Randall-Sundrum brane world. This formalism leads to four independent equations describing the evolution of scalar perturbations. Three of these equations are differential equations written in terms of gauge invariant variables on the brane only, and the other is an integro-differential equation describing non-locality due to bulk gravitational waves. At low energy the evolution of the scalar-type cosmological perturbations in the brane-world cosmology differs from that in the standard cosmology only by non-local effects due to bulk gravitational waves.

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arXiv2002

Brane gravity, higher derivative terms and non-locality

In brane world scenarios with a bulk scalar field between two branes it is known that 4-dimensional Einstein gravity is restored at low energies on either brane. By using a gauge-invariant gravitational and scalar perturbation formalism we extend the theory of weak gravity in the brane world scenarios to higher energies, or shorter distances. We argue that weak gravity on either brane is indistinguishable from 4-dimensional higher derivative gravity, provided that the inter-brane distance (radion) is stabilized, that the background bulk scalar field is changing near the branes and that the background bulk geometry near the branes is warped. This argument holds for a general conformal transformation to a frame in which matter on the branes is minimally coupled to the metric. In particular, Newton's constant and the coefficients of curvature-squared terms in the 4-dimensional effective action are determined up to an ambiguity of adding a Gauss-Bonnet topological term. In other words, we provide the brane-world realization of the so called $R^2$-model without utilizing a quantum theory. We discuss the appearance of composite spin-2 and spin-0 fields in addition to the graviton on the brane and point out a possibility that the spin-0 field may play the role of an effective inflaton to drive brane-world inflation. Finally, we conjecture that the sequence of higher derivative terms is an infinite series and, thus, indicates non-locality in the brane world scenarios.

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arXiv2001

Doubly covariant action principle of singular hypersurfaces in general relativity and scalar-tensor theories

An action principle of singular hypersurfaces in general relativity and scalar-tensor type theories of gravity in the Einstein frame is presented without assuming any symmetry. The action principle is manifestly doubly covariant in the sense that coordinate systems on and off a hypersurface are disentangled and can be independently specified. It is shown that, including variation of the metric, the position of the hypersurface and matter fields, the variational principle gives the correct set of equations of motion: the Einstein equation off the hypersurface, Israel's junction condition in a doubly covariant form and equations of motion of matter fields including the scalar fields. The position of the hypersurface measured from one side of the hypersurface and that measured from another side can be independently variated as required by the double covariance.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2001

Integro-differential equation for brane-world cosmological perturbations

Cosmological perturbations in the brane-world cosmology with a positive tension brane in the AdS background bulk geometry is analyzed by using the doubly gauge-invariant formalism. We derive four independent equations for scalar perturbations in the plane symmetric (K=0) background. Three of these equations are differential equations written in terms of gauge invariant variables on the brane only, and another of them is an integro-differential equation whose kernel is constructed formally from the Z_2-symmetric retarded Green's function of the bulk gravitational waves. We compare these four equations with the corresponding equations in the standard cosmology. As a by-product, we also obtain a set of equations which may be useful in numerical calculations.

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arXiv2001

Static solutions in the R^4 brane world

A simple five-dimensional brane world model is proposed, motivated by M-theory compactified on a six-dimensional manifold of small radius and an $S^1/Z_2$ of large radius. We include a leading-order higher curvature correction to the tree-level bulk action since in brane world scenarios the curvature scale in the bulk may be comparable to the five-dimensional Planck scale and, thus, higher curvature corrections may become important. As a tractable model of the bulk theory we consider pure gravity including a $(Ricci-scalar)^4$-correction to the Einstein-Hilbert action. In this model theory, after a conformal transformation to the Einstein frame, we numerically obtain static solutions, each of which consists of a positive tension brane and a negative tension brane. For these solutions, we obtain two relations between the warp factor and the brane tensions. The existence of these relations implies that, contrary to the original Randall-Sundrum model, the so called radion is no longer a zero mode. We conclude that the tension of our brane should be negative and that fine-tuning of the tension of both branes is necessary for a large warp factor to explain the large hierarchy between the Planck scale and the electroweak scale.

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arXiv2000

Perturbation of junction condition and doubly gauge-invariant variables

The junction condition across a singular surface in general relativity, formulated by Israel, has double covariance. In this paper, a general perturbation scheme of the junction condition around an arbitrary background is given in a doubly covariant way. After that, as an application of the general scheme, we consider perturbation of the junction condition around a background with the symmetry of a $(D-2)$-dimensional constant curvature space, where $D$ is the dimensionality of the spacetime. The perturbed junction condition is written in terms of doubly gauge-invariant variables only. Since the symmetric background includes cosmological solutions in the brane-world as a special case, the doubly gauge-invariant junction condition can be used as basic equations for perturbations in the brane-world cosmology.

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arXiv2000

Quantum effects, brane tension and large hierarchy in the brane-world

Semiclassical Einstein's equation in five-dimension with a negative cosmological constant and conformally invariant bulk matter fields is examined in the brane world scenario with the S^1/Z_2 compactification. When numbers N_{b,f} of bosonic and fermionic fields satisfy I<κ^2l^{-3}(N_b-N_f)<32I, we obtain an exact semiclassical solution which has two static branes with positive tension and for which the warp factor can be arbitrarily large. Here, κ^2 is the five-dimensional gravitational constant, l is a length scale determined by the negative five-dimensional cosmological constant, and $I$ is a dimensionless positive constant of order unity. However, in order to obtain a large warp factor, fine tuning of brane tensions is required. Hence, in order to solve the hierarchy problem, we need to justify the fine tuning by another new mechanism.

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arXiv2000

Moving-mirror entropy

We consider a quantized scalar field in a two-dimensional Minkowski spacetime with a moving mirror and propose a definition of moving-mirror entropy associated with temporarily inaccessible information about the future.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2000

Gauge-invariant gravitational perturbations of maximally symmetric spacetimes

Gravitational perturbations of anti-deSitter spacetime play important roles in AdS/CFT correspondence and the brane world scenario. In this paper, we develop a gauge-invariant formalism of gravitational perturbations of maximally symmetric spacetimes including anti-deSitter spacetime. Existence of scalar-type master variables is shown and the corresponding master equations are derived.

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arXiv2000

Excitation of Kaluza-Klein modes of U(1) field by parametric resonance

In this paper, based on the theory of parametric resonance, we propose a cosmological criterion on ways of compactification: we rule out such a model of compactification that there exists a Kaluza-Klein mode satisfying $2m_{KK}=ω_b$, where $m_{KK}$ is mass of the Kaluza-Klein mode and $ω_b$ is the frequency of oscillation of the radius of the compact manifold on which extra dimensions are compactified. This is a restatement of the criterion proposed previously [S. Mukohyama, Phys. Rev. {\bf D57}, 6191 (1998)]. As an example, we consider a model of compactification by a sphere and investigate Kaluza-Klein modes of U(1) field. In this case the parametric resonance is so mild that the sphere model is not ruled out.

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