https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09783-5
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Thick branes in the scalar–tensor representation of f(R, T) gravity
1
Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, W. Ostwaldi 1, 50411, Tartu, Estonia
2
Departamento de Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 58051-900, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil
3
Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 58051-970, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil
4
Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Edifício C8, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal
5
Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Edifício C8, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal
Received:
13
May
2021
Accepted:
30
October
2021
Published online:
8
November
2021
Braneworld scenarios consider our observable universe as a brane embedded in a five-dimensional bulk. In this work, we consider thick braneworld systems in the recently proposed dynamically equivalent scalar–tensor representation of f(R, T) gravity, where R is the Ricci scalar and T the trace of the stress–energy tensor. In the general 
case we consider two different models: a brane model without matter fields where the geometry is supported solely by the gravitational fields, and a second model where matter is described by a scalar field with a potential. The particular cases for which the function is separable in the forms 
and 
, which give rise to scalar–tensor representations with a single auxiliary scalar field, are studied separately. The stability of the gravitational sector is investigated and the models are shown to be stable against small perturbations of the metric. Furthermore, we show that in the model in the presence of an extra matter field, the shape of the graviton zero-mode develops internal structure under appropriate choices of the parameters of the model.
© The Author(s) 2021
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