The dynamics of three-forms in thick branes

Abstract

In this work, we investigate thick brane models with a single three-form field. We find novel solutions for thick braneworlds where only three-forms exist and interact gravitationally in the bulk, both with and without matter fields. We use an additional scalar field as proxy for the matter fields. As an initial study, we consider the results here in contrast to the single scalar field thick braneworld case. The properties of the specific three-form parameterisation limits the freedom we have to choose the form of the warp factor, leading to a closed system of equations with nontrivial yet unstable solutions. The stability of the gravitational sector for thick brane three-forms is investigated and the models are shown to be unstable against small perturbations of the metric, further indicating that three-forms cannot exist stably in thick braneworld settings.