Brane vector dynamics from embedding geometry Original Research Article

A Kaluza–Klein decomposition of higher dimensional gravity is performed in the flexible brane world scenario and the properties of the extra vectors resulting from this decomposition are explored. These vectors become massive due to a gravitational Higgs mechanism in which the brane oscillation Nambu–Goldstone bosons become the longitudinal component of the vector fields. The vector mass is found to be proportional to the exponential of the vacuum expectation value of the radion (dilaton) field and as such its magnitude is model dependent. Using the structure of the embedding geometry, the couplings of these vectors to the Standard Model, including those resulting from the extrinsic curvature, are deduced. As an example, we show that for 5D space–time the geometry of the bulk-brane world, either intrinsic or extrinsic, only depends on the extra vector and the 4D graviton. The connection between the embedding geometry and coset construction by non-linear realization is also presented.