Opening up extra dimensions at ultra-large scales

Abstract

The standard picture of viable higher-dimensional theories is that extra dimensions manifest themselves at short distances only, their effects being negligible at scales larger than some critical value. We show that this is not necessarily true in models with infinite extra dimensions. As an example, we consider a five-dimensional scenario with three 3-branes in which gravity is five-dimensional both at short {\it and} very long distance scales, with conventional four-dimensional gravity operating at intermediate length scales. A phenomenologically acceptable range of validity of four-dimensional gravity extending from microscopic to cosmological scales is obtained without strong fine-tuning of parameters.