Cosmological evolution of general scalar fields in a brane-world cosmology

Abstract

We study the cosmology of a general scalar field and barotropic fluid during the early stage of a brane-world where the Friedmann constraint is dominated by the square of the energy density. Assuming both the scalar field and fluid are confined to the brane, we find a range of behaviour depending on the form of the potential. Generalising an approach developed for a standard Friedmann cosmology, in \cite{delaMacorra:1999ff}, we show that the potential dependence $V(\phi)$ can be described through a parameter $\lambda \equiv -\sqrt{2} m_5^{3/2} V'/(\sqrt{H}V)$, where $m_5$ is the 5-dimensional Planck mass, $H$ is the Hubble parameter and $V' \equiv \frac{dV}{d\phi}$. For the case where $\lambda$ asymptotes to zero, we show that the solution exhibits stable inflationary behaviour. On the other hand if it approaches a finite constant, then $V(\phi) \propto \frac{1}{\phi^2}$. For $\lambda \to \infty$ asymptotically, we find examples where it does so both with and without oscillating. In the latter case, the barotropic fluid dominates the scalar filed asymptotically. Finally we point out an interesting duality which leads to identical evolution equations in the high energy $\rho^2$ dominated regime and the low energy $\rho$ dominated regime.