Exponential and power-law hierarchies from supergravity

Abstract

We examine how a d-dimensional mass hierarchy can be generated from a d+1-dimensional set up. We consider a d+1--dimensional scalar, the hierarchon, which has a potential as in gauged supergravities. We find that when it is in its minimum, there exist solutions of Horava-Witten topology R^d X S^1/Z^2 with domain walls at the fixed points and anti-de Sitter geometry in the bulk. We show that while standard Poincare supergravity leads to power-law hierarchies, (e.g. a power law dependence of masses on the compactification scale), gauged supergravity produce an exponential hierarchy as recently proposed by Randall and Sundrum.