Metric Fluctuations in Brane Worlds

Abstract

Recently a realization of the four-dimensional gravity on a brane in five-dimensional spacetime has been discussed. Randall and Sundrum have shown that the equation for the longitudinal components of the metric fluctuations admit a normalizable zero mode solution, which has been interpreted as the localized gravity on the brane. We point out that the equation for the transverse components of the metric fluctuations has a solutions which is not localized on the brane. This indicates that probably the effective theory is unstable or, in other words, actually it is not four-dimensional but five-dimensional. Perhaps a modification of the proposal by using matter fields can lead to the trapping of gravity to the brane.