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Supratik Pal

Publications and source records attributed to Supratik Pal.

77 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Structure formation on the brane: A mimicry

We show how braneworld cosmology with bulk matter can explain structure formation. In this scenario, the nonlocal corrections to the Friedmann equations supply a Weyl fluid that can dominate over matter at late times due to the energy exchange between the brane and the bulk. We demonstrate that the presence of the Weyl fluid radically changes the perturbation equations, which can take care of the fluctuations required to account for the large amount of inhomogeneities observed in the local universe. Further, we show how this Weyl fluid can mimic dark matter. We also investigate the bulk geometry responsible for the scenario.

gr-qc↗

Geometry of deformations of branes in warped backgrounds

The `braneworld' (described by the usual worldvolume action) is a D dimensional timelike surface embedded in a N dimensional ($N>D$) warped, nonfactorisable spacetime. We first address the conditions on the warp factor required to have an extremal flat brane in a five dimensional background. Subsequently, we deal with normal deformations of such extremal branes. The ensuing Jacobi equations are analysed to obtain the stability condition. It turns out that to have a stable brane, the warp factor should have a minimum at the location of the brane in the given background spacetime. To illustrate our results we explicitly check the extremality and stability criteria for a few known co-dimension one braneworld models. Generalisations of the above formalism for the cases of (i) curved branes (ii) asymmetrical warping and (iii) higher co-dimension braneworlds are then presented alongwith some typical examples for each. Finally, we summarize our results and provide perspectives for future work along these lines.

hep-th↗

An alternative to dark matter: do braneworld effects hold the key?

An alternative way of explaining astrophysical observations without dark matter is proposed. In the braneworld scenario, where our universe is visualised as a 4-dimensional hypersurface embedded in a higher dimensional spacetime, the effective Einstein equation on the brane contains extra terms. We show that the astrophysical observations which are usually explained by particle dark matter, can be explained in this modified theory of gravity via those extra terms, without the need for dark matter. As specific example, we model X-ray profiles of clusters of galaxies and the galaxy rotation curves which are consistent with observations. Further, we investigate whether gravitational lensing can discriminate between the two possibilities. Significant differences between the values of the deflection angles are obtained, which can be tested in future observations.

astro-ph↗

Can extra dimensional effects replace dark matter ?

In the braneworld scenario, the four dimensional effective Einstein equation has extra terms which arise from the embedding of the 3-brane in the bulk. We show that in this modified theory of gravity, it is possible to model observations of galaxy rotation curves and the X-ray profiles of clusters of galaxies, without the need for dark matter. In this scenario, a traceless tensor field which arises from the projection of the bulk Weyl tensor on the brane, provides the extra gravitational acceleration which is usually explained through dark matter. We also predict that gravitational lensing observations can possibly discriminate between the proposed higher dimensional effects and dark matter, the deflection angles predicted in the proposed scenario being around 75% to 80% of the usual predictions based on dark matter.

gr-qc↗

Geodesics and geodesic deviation in a two-dimensional black hole

We introduce an exactly solvable example of timelike geodesic motion and geodesic deviation in the background geometry of a well-known two-dimensional black hole spacetime. The effective potential for geodesic motion turns out to be either a harmonic oscillator or an inverted harmonic oscillator or a linear function of the spatial variable, corresponding to the three different domains of a constant of the motion. The geodesic deviation equation also is exactly solvable. The corresponding deviation vector is obtained and the nature of the deviation is briefly discussed by highlighting a specific case.

gr-qc↗