Brane cosmology: an introduction

Abstract

These notes give an introductory review on brane cosmology. This subject deals with the cosmological behaviour of a brane-universe, i.e. a three-dimensional space, where ordinary matter is confined, embedded in a higher dimensional spacetime. In the tractable case of a five-dimensional bulk spacetime, the brane (modified) Friedmann equation is discussed in detail, and various other aspects are presented, such as cosmological perturbations, bulk scalar fields and systems with several branes.

Comments: 32 pages; 3 figures; Latex (PTPTeX); to appear in the Proceedings of the YITP workshop on "Braneworld - Dynamics of spacetime boundary"