We discuss the Schwarzschild solution in the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) model. We obtain a perturbative expansion and find the explicit form of the lowest-order contribution.By keeping off-diagonal terms in the metric, we arrive at a perturbative expansion which is valid both far from and near the Schwarzschild radius. We calculate the lowest-order contribution explicitly and obtain the form of the metric both on the brane and in the bulk. As we approach the Schwarzschild radius, the perturbative expansion yields the standard fourdimensional Schwarzschild solution on the brane which is non-singular in the decoupling limit.This non-singular behavior is similar to the Vainshtein solution in massive gravity demonstrating the absence of the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov (vDVZ) discontinuity in the DGP model. 1

We examine the effect on cosmological evolution of adding a Gauss-Bonnet term to the standard Einstein-Hilbert action for a (1 + 3) + d dimensional Friedman-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric. By assuming that the additional dimensions compactify as a power law as the usual 3 spatial dimensions expand, we solve the resulting dynamical equations and find that the solution may be of either de Sitter or Kasner form depending upon whether the Gauss-Bonnet term or the Einstein term dominates.

We examine the time evolution of the five-dimensional Einstein field equations subjected to a flat, anisotropic Robertson-Walker metric, where the 3D and higher-dimensional scale factors are allowed to dynamically evolve at different rates. By adopting equations of state relating the 3D and higher-dimensional pressures to the density, we obtain an exact expression relating the higherdimensional scale factor to a function of the 3D scale factor. This relation allows us to write the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker field equations exclusively in terms of the 3D scale factor, thus yielding a set of 4D effective Friedmann-Robertson-Walker field equations. We examine the effective field equations in the general case and obtain an exact expression relating a function of the 3D scale factor to the time. This expression involves a hypergeometric function and cannot, in general, be inverted to yield an analytical expression for the 3D scale factor as a function of time. When the hypergeometric function is expanded for small and large arguments, we obtain a generalized treatment of the dynamical compactification scenario of Mohammedi [Phys.Rev.D 65, 104018 (2002)] and the 5D vacuum solution of Detweiler [Phys.Rev.D 21, 2167 (1980)], respectively. By expanding the hypergeometric function near a branch point, we obtain the perturbative solution for the 3D scale factor in the small time regime. This solution exhibits accelerated expansion, which, remarkably, is independent of the value of the 4D equation of state parameter w. This early-time epoch of accelerated expansion arises naturally out of the anisotropic evolution of 5D spacetime when the pressure in the extra dimension is negative and offers a possible alternative to scalar field inflationary theory.

We present a theoretical and experimental analysis of circular-like orbits made by a marble rolling on a warped spandex fabric. We show that the mass of the fabric interior to the orbital path influences the motion of the marble in a nontrivial way, and can even dominate the orbital characteristics. We also compare a Kepler-like expression for such orbits to similar expressions for orbits about a spherically-symmetric massive object in the presence of a constant vacuum energy, as described by general relativity.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, to appear in AJ

We study perturbations of the gravity dual to a perfect fluid model recently found by Janik and Perschanski [hep-th/0512162]. We solve the Einstein equations in the bulk AdS space for a metric ansatz which includes off-diagonal terms. Through holographic renormalization, we show that these terms give rise to heat conduction in the corresponding CFT on the boundary. *