We consider scalar perturbations in the time-dependent Hou{r}ava-Witten Model in order to probe its stability. We show that during the non-singular epoque the model evolves without instabilities until it encounters the curvature singularity where a big crunch is supposed to occur. We compute the frequencies of the scalar field oscillation during the stable period and show how the oscillations can be used to prove the presence of such a singularity.
We discuss various superstring effective actions and, in particular, their common sector which leads to the so-called pre-big-bang cosmology (cosmology in a weak coupling limit of heterotic superstring). Then, we review the main ideas of the Horava-Witten theory which is a strong coupling limit of heterotic superstring theory. Using the conformal relationship between these two theories we present Kasner asymptotic solutions of Bianchi type IX geometries within these theories and make predictions about possible emergence of chaos. Finally, we present a possible method of generating Horava-Witten cosmological solutions out of the well-known general relativistic pre-big-bang solutions.
Bianchi type I and type IX (Mixmaster) geometries are investigated within the framework of Hov{r}ava-Witten cosmology. We consider the models for which the fifth coordinate is a $S^1/Z_2$ orbifold while the four coordinates are such that the 3-space is homogeneous and has geometry of Bianchi type I or IX while the rest six dimensions have already been compactified on a Calabi-Yau space. In particular, we study Kasner-type solutions of the Bianchi I field equations and discuss Kasner asymptotics of Bianchi IX field equations. We are able to recover the isotropic 3-space solutions found by Lukas {it et al}. Finally, we discuss if such Bianchi IX configuration can result in chaotic behaviour of these Hov{r}ava-Witten cosmologies.
Horava gravity breaks Lorentz symmetry by introducing a dynamical timelike scalar field (the khronon), which can be used as a preferred time coordinate (thus selecting a preferred space-time foliation). Adopting the khronon as the time coordinate, the theory is invariant only under time reparametrizations and spatial diffeomorphisms. In the infrared limit, this theory is sometimes referred to as khronometric theory. Here, we explicitly construct a generalization of khronometric theory, which avoids the propagation of Ostrogradski modes as a result of a suitable degeneracy condition (although stability of the latter under radiative corrections remains an open question). While this new theory does not have a general-relativistic limit and does not yield a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker-like cosmology on large scales, it still passes, for suitable choices of its coupling constants, local tests on Earth and in the solar system, as well as gravitational-wave tests. We also comment on the possible usefulness of this theory as a toy model of quantum gravity, as it could be completed in the ultraviolet into a degenerate Horava gravity theory that could be perturbatively renormalizable without imposing any projectability condition.
We study quantum corrections to projectable Horava gravity with $z = 2$ scaling in 2+1 dimensions. Using the background field method, we utilize a non-singular gauge to compute the anomalous dimension of the cosmological constant at one loop, in a normalization adapted to the spatial curvature term.