Ebook: The Cosmology of Extra Dimensions and Varying Fundamental Constants: A JENAM 2002 Workshop Porto, Portugal 3–5 September 2002

The workshop on The Cosmology of Extra Dimensions and Varying Fundamental Constants, which was part of JENAM 2002, was held at the Physics Department of the University of Porto (FCUP) from the 3rd to the 5th of September 2002. It was regularly attended by about 110 participants, of which 65 were officially registered in the VFC workshop, while the others came from the rest of the JENAM workshops. There were also a few science correspondents from the national and international press. During the 3 days of the scientific programme, 8 Invited Reviews and 30 Oral Communications were presented. The speakers came from 11 different European countries, and also from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Japan and the U.S.A. There were also speakers from six Portuguese research institutions, and nine of the speak­ ers were Ph.D. students. The contributions are presented in these proceedings in chronological order. The workshop brought together string theorists, particle physicists, theoretical and observational cosmologists, relativists and observational astrophysicists. It was generally agreed that this inter-disciplinarity was the greatest strength of the work­ shop, since it provided people coming into this very recent topic from the various different backgrounds with an opportunity to understand each other's language and thereby gain a more solid understanding of the overall picture.

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The workshop on the cosmology of extra dimensions and varying fundamental constants was part of JENAM 2002, held in Porto in September 2002. It was the first major international workshop devoted to this topic. It brought together string theorists, particle physicists, theoretical and observational cosmologists, relativists and observational astrophysicists.

The overall motivation for the workshop was to discuss the current theoretical motivations for the existence of additional space-time dimensions, and to confront these expectations with existing or upcoming observational and experimental tests. The interaction between specialists in different areas was quite fruitful, and a number of outstanding issues were identified which are likely to become the main paths of research to be explored in this area in the coming years.

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The workshop on the cosmology of extra dimensions and varying fundamental constants was part of JENAM 2002, held in Porto in September 2002. It was the first major international workshop devoted to this topic. It brought together string theorists, particle physicists, theoretical and observational cosmologists, relativists and observational astrophysicists.

The overall motivation for the workshop was to discuss the current theoretical motivations for the existence of additional space-time dimensions, and to confront these expectations with existing or upcoming observational and experimental tests. The interaction between specialists in different areas was quite fruitful, and a number of outstanding issues were identified which are likely to become the main paths of research to be explored in this area in the coming years.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-viii
The Cosmology of Extra Dimensions and Varying Fundamental Constants....Pages 1-6
String Theory, Cosmology and Varying Constants....Pages 7-18
Cosmological Parameters from Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies: Status and Prospects....Pages 19-30
Cosmology in a Brane-Universe....Pages 31-41
Brane World Effective Action at Low Energies....Pages 43-48
Varying Fundamental Constants from a String-Inspired Brane World Model....Pages 49-54
Cosmology ‘without’ Constants....Pages 55-65
Variable Speed of Light Theories....Pages 67-71
Varying Fundamental Constants: A Dynamical Systems Approach....Pages 73-78
A Resolution of the Cosmological Singularity in String Theory....Pages 79-86
The Global Structure of the Colliding Bubble Braneworld Universe....Pages 87-92
The Value of ?0 in a Colliding Bubble Universe....Pages 93-98
Inhomogeneous Dark Radiation Dynamics on a de Sitter Brane....Pages 99-104
The Confrontation Between General Relativity and Experiment....Pages 105-114
The Implications of Experimental Uncertainties in Newton’s Constant on the Standard Evolution of the Sun....Pages 115-120
Varying Fine-Structure Constant and the Cosmological Constant Problem....Pages 121-126
Does the Fine Structure Constant Vary? A Detailed Investigation into Systematic Effects....Pages 127-137
Measuring ? in the Early Universe....Pages 139-144
Constraining Theoretical Models with Astronomical and Geophysical Bounds....Pages 145-150
White Dwarf Constraints on Exotic Physics....Pages 151-156
Possible Evidence of Time Variation of Weak Interaction Constant from Double Beta Decay Experiments....Pages 157-162
Varying Constants, Nuclear Physics and Unification....Pages 163-168
Cosmological Perturbations of an Expanding Brane in an Anti-De Sitter Bulk: A Short Review....Pages 169-174
Varying Constants in Brane World Scenarios....Pages 175-180
Cosmological Tensor Perturbations in Brane World Models....Pages 181-188
Holographic View of Cosmological Perturbations....Pages 189-194
Constants and Variations: From Alpha to Omega....Pages 195-200
A Qualitative Analysis of the Attractor Mechanism of General Relativity....Pages 201-206
Non-Abelian Brane Cosmology....Pages 207-222
Chaos and Brane-Worlds....Pages 223-228
Multidimensional Cosmology and Asymptotical Ads....Pages 229-234
Black Hole Solutions in Braneworlds with Induced Gravity....Pages 235-240
....Pages 241-246