Eur. Phys. J. C (2013) 73: 2675
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-013-2675-4

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Gravity effects on thick brane formation from scalar field dynamics

¹ V.A. Fock Department of Theoretical Physics, Saint-Petersburg State University, ul. Ulianovskaya, 198504, St. Petersburg, Russia
² Institut de Ciències del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí Franquès, 1, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

^* e-mail: oonovikov@gmail.com

Received: 1 November 2013
Revised: 21 November 2013
Published online: 10 December 2013

Abstract

The formation of a thick brane in five-dimensional space-time is investigated when warp geometries of AdS ₅ type are induced by scalar matter dynamics and triggered by a thin-brane defect. The scalar matter is taken to consist of two fields with O(2) symmetric self-interaction and with manifest O(2) symmetry breaking by terms quadratic in fields. One of them serves as a thick brane formation mode around a kink background and another one is of a Higgs-field type which may develop a classical background as well. Scalar matter interacts with gravity in the minimal form and gravity effects on (quasi)localized scalar fluctuations are calculated with usage of gauge invariant variables suitable for perturbation expansion. The calculations are performed in the vicinity of the critical point of spontaneous breaking of the combined parity symmetry where a non-trivial v.e.v. of the Higgs-type scalar field is generated. The non-perturbative discontinuous gravitational effects in the mass spectrum of light localized scalar states are studied in the presence of a thin-brane defect. The thin brane with negative tension happens to be the most curious case when the singular barriers form a potential well with two infinitely tall walls and the discrete spectrum of localized states arises completely isolated from the bulk.