Non-minimal coupling as a mechanism for spontaneous symmetry breaking on the brane

Abstract

Motivated by the dimensional asymmetry characteristic of braneworlds, we populate the bulk spacetime with matter scalar fields, both real and complex, and couple them non-minimally to gravity. We derive the effective equations of motion on the brane and realize the case when the fields acquire a non-vanishing vacuum expectation value. This entails a change in the effective cosmological constant and in the effective mass of the scalar fields. We find that the non-minimal coupling provides a mechanism for generating spontaneous symmetry breaking at Planck energies on the brane. This mechanism is however rendered unviable for the generation of masses at the energy scales of the standard model.