The cosmological constant in the brane world of string theory on $S^{1}/Z_{2}$

Anzhong Wang, N. O. Santos

Published 2007-12-23, updated 2008-09-06Version 3

Orbifold branes in string theory are investigated, and the general field equations on the branes are given explicitly for type II and heterotic string. It is shown that the effective cosmological constant on each of the two branes can be easily lowered to its current observational value, using large extra dimensions. This is also true for type I string. The radion stability is studied by using the Goldberger-Wise mechanism, and shown explicitly that it is stable. Therefore, brane world of string theory provides a viable and built-in mechanism for solving the long-standing cosmological constant problem. Applying the formulas to cosmology, we obtain the generalized Friedmann equations on each of the two branes.