Transient Quintessence from Group Manifold Reductions or how all roads lead to Rome

• Main Authors: Bergshoeff, E, Collinucci, A, Gran, U G, Nielsen, M, Roest, D
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Particle Physics - Theory; Arctic
• Online Access: http://cds.cern.ch/record/691221

We investigate the accelerating phases of cosmologies supported by a metric, scalars and a single exponential scalar potential. The different solutions can be represented by trajectories on a sphere and we find that quintessence happens within the "arctic circle" of the sphere. Furthermore, we obtain multi-exponential potentials from 3D group manifold reductions of gravity, implying that such potentials can be embedded in gauged supergravities with an M-theory origin. Remarkably, the higher-dimensional origin of certain power law solutions is a (locally) Minkowskian space-time. We relate the double exponential case to flux compactifications on maximally symmetric spaces and S-branes. In the triple exponential case our analysis suggests the existence of two exotic S(D-3)-branes in D dimensions.