Football Shaped Extra Dimensions and the Absence of Self-Tuning

Abstract

There have been some recent claims that brane-worlds of co-dimension two in a 6D bulk with compact extra dimensions may lead to self-tuning of the effective 4D cosmological constant. Here we show that if a phase transition occurs on a flat brane, so as to change its tension, then the brane will not remain flat. In other words, there is really no self-tuning in such models, which can in fact be understood in four-dimensional terms and are therefore subject to Weinberg's no-go theorem.