Bulk torsion fields in theories with large extra dimensions

Abstract

We study the consequences of spacetime torsion coexisting with gravity in the bulk in scenarios with large extra dimensions. Having linked torsion with the Kalb-Ramond antisymmetric tensor field arising in string theories, we examine its artifacts on the visible 3-brane when the extra dimensions are compactified. It is found that while torsion would have led to parity violation in a 4-dimensional framework, all parity violating effects disappear on the visible brane when the torsion originates in the bulk. However, such a scenario is found to have characteristics of its own, some of which can be phenomenologically significant.