1994/11/15 by Janna Levin · 40 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Economics #Inflation (cosmology) #Physics #Theoretical physics #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/0370-2693(94)01499-3
published in Physics Letters B 343(1-4), 69-75 (Elsevier BV) · 15 pages, LaTeX file, 4 Figures
arxiv created 1994/11/15 · openalex publication_date 1995/01/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A gravity-driven inflation is shown to arise from a simple higher dimensional universe. In vacuum, the shear of n>1 contracting dimensions is able to inflate the remaining three spatial dimensions. Said another way, the expansion of the 3-volume is accelerated by the contraction of the n-volume. Upon dimensional reduction, the theory is equivalent to a four dimensional cosmology with a dynamical Planck mass. A connection can therefore be made to recent examples of inflation powered by a dilaton kinetic energy. Unfortunately, the graceful exit problem encountered in dilaton cosmologies will haunt this cosmology as well.