Related papers: Existence of Life in 2 + 1 Dimensions
We sketch a particularly simple and compelling version of D-brane cosmology. Inspired by the semi-phenomenological Randall--Sundrum models, and their cosmological generalizations, we develop a variant that contains a single…
Recently the 1/R gravity has been proposed in order to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe. However, it was argued that the 1/R gravity conflicts with solar system tests. While this statement is true if one views the 1/R…
The observable universe could be a 1+3-surface (the "brane") embedded in a 1+3+\textit{d}-dimensional spacetime (the "bulk"), with Standard Model particles and fields trapped on the brane while gravity is free to access the bulk. At least…
Recently, Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos, and Dvali have proposed that there are extra compact dimensions of space, accessible to gravity but not to ordinary matter, which could be macroscopically large. In this letter, we argue that high-energy…
In higher-dimensional theories such as Brane World models with quasi-localized non-Abelian gauge fields the vacuum structure turns out to be trivial. Since the gauge theory behaves at large distances as a $4+\delta$-dimensional and thus the…
In order to investigate the phenomenological implications of allowing gauge fields to propagate in warped spaces of more than five dimensions, we consider a toy model of a space warped by the presence of a anisotropic bulk cosmological…
The role of global topology in the dynamics of the Universe is poorly understood. Along with observational programmes for determining the topology of the Universe, some small theoretical steps have recently been made. Heuristic…
A simple stochastic model for evolution, based upon the need to pass a sequence of n critical steps (Carter 1983, Watson 2008) is applied to both terrestrial and extraterrestrial origins of life. In the former case, the time at which humans…
D-branes are fundamental in all scenarios where there are large extra dimensions and the string scale is much smaller than the four-dimensional Planck mass. We show that this current picture leads to a new approach to string cosmology where…
If advanced civilizations appear in the universe with an ability and desire to expand, the entire universe can become saturated with life on a short timescale, even if such expanders appear rarely. Our presence in an apparently untouched…
We review a growing theoretical motivation and evidence that the number of dimensions actually reduces at high energies. This reduction can happen near the Planck scale, or much before, the dimensions that are reduced can be effective,…
Some observational constraints on the brane-world based on predictions from specific models in five dimensions, have been recently reported, both on local and cosmological scales. In order to identify the origins of these constraints, the…
We argue that de Sitter universes with a small cosmological constant are entropically favored to have three spatial dimensions. The conclusion relies on the causal-patch description of de Sitter space, where fiducial observers experience…
We investigate in which sense, at the linearized level, one can extend the 3D topologically massive gravity theory beyond three dimensions. We show that, for each k=1,2,3... a free topologically massive gauge theory in 4k-1 dimensions can…
In the History of Ideas, a succession of philosophical and scientific achievements, concerning the concept of space and its dimensionality, were essential to contribute, after a long period, to the theoretical possibility of thinking…
We propose a new selection principle for distinguishing among possible vacua that we call the "relaxation principle". The idea is that the universe will naturally select among possible vacua through its cosmological evolution, and the…
Supersymmetry has been studied for over three decades by physicists, its superset even longer by mathematicians, and superspace has proven to be very useful both conceptually and in facilitating computations. However, the (1) necessary…
The configuration space of general relativity is superspace - the space of all Riemannian 3-metrics modulo diffeomorphisms. However, it has been argued that the configuration space for gravity should be conformal superspace - the space of…
The presence of compact extra dimensions in cosmological scenarios in the context of f(T)-like gravities is discussed. For the case of toroidal compactifications, the analysis is performed in an arbitrary number of extra dimensions.…
General relativity becomes vastly simpler in three spacetime dimensions: all vacuum solutions have constant curvature, and the moduli space of solutions can be almost completely characterized. As a result, this lower dimensional setting…