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# HST Observations of Black Hole X-Ray Transient Outbursts

## 1 Introduction

Black hole X-ray transients (BHXRT; also known as Soft X-Ray Transients and X-Ray Novae; see Tanaka & Shibazaki 1996) contain a compact object accreting from a low-mass star via Roche lobe overflow and an accretion disk. They differ from other X-ray binaries in that significant X-ray emission is seen only in well defined outbursts lasting up to two years and recurring on timescales of decades. The currently favored model for these outbursts is a variant of the disk instability model originally developed for dwarf nova outbursts (Cannizzo 1999). In $`>70`$ % of cases, the compact object is dynamically measured to be a black hole (Charles 1998). These objects are thus the best place to study stellar mass black holes. In particular, there has recently been much theoretical work on advective accretion flows, and variations on this theme, in which the black hole ‘silently’ accretes material through its event horizon with little emission (Narayan, Mahadevan & Quataert 1998). The reality of such flows remains controversial.

The first HST observations of a BHXRT were of X-ray Nova Muscae 1991 through Director’s Discretionary Time (Cheng et al. 1992). After this, a formal target-of-opportunity program was established to study BHXRT outbursts, originally using FOS and now STIS. The current program contains 20 STIS orbits spread over 7 visits spanning the first 150 days of outburst. Our goals include: to monitor changes in the 1100–10300 Å spectrum through the outburst; to obtain a high-quality far-UV spectrum to study the typically rich emission line spectrum; to use the near-UV spectrum to fit the 2175 Å interstellar absorption feature and determine the interstellar reddening; and to obtain UV data in TIMETAG mode for comparison with simultaneous RXTE X-ray light curves and echo mapping. For initial visits on a bright target we also use medium-resolution echelle modes to obtain UV line spectrum with velocity resolution $`<10`$ km s-1.

## 2 GRO J0422+32

The first target for the target-of-opportunity program, GRO J0422+32 was discovered in August 1992 by CGRO/BATSE. The primary is likely a 4–12 M black hole and the companion an M0–M4 dwarf in a 5.1 hr low-inclination orbit. The outburst lightcurve is the best studied of any BHXRT. GRO J0422+32 was observed by HST/FOS in a single visit at the end of the outburst, in 1994. A full description of this observation is given by Hynes & Haswell (1999).

The outburst behavior, illustrated in Fig. 1, is complex, dividing into two phases spanning two years. The early plateau phase ($`200`$ d) showed a steady exponential decline. The later phase shows the same decay rate at lower level, with several superposed mini-outbursts. Two mini-outbursts were definitely detected, separated by 120 d. The near-quiescent HST observations appear to have detected a third mini-outburst, or a flat plateau at end of outburst. This occurs $`240`$ d after the previous mini-outburst, consistent with twice the 120 d recurrence time.

The dereddened spectral energy distribution (SED) peaks at blue wavelengths. It appears sharper peaked than a black body; a self-absorbed synchrotron spectrum fits much better. Advective accretion flow models predict that optical emission is dominated by synchrotron, with similar peak wavelength to that seen. The HST observation may therefore indicate that an advective flow has already formed at the end of the outburst.

## 3 GRO J1655–40

This object was discovered by CGRO/BATSE in July 1994. The system is believed to comprise a 5–7 M black hole and an F-type subgiant companion in a 2.6 d orbit. Several outbursts occurred until 1997, during the first of which relativistic jets were ejected. The outburst optical and X-ray fluxes are not well correlated. In 1996, HST saw optical and UV fluxes drop whilst X-rays rose (Hynes et al. 1998a). This is difficult to reconcile with simple outburst models with optical/UV emission produced by reprocessing of X-ray emission via disk heating. Echo mapping indicates at least some reprocessing (see below); the most likely solution is that reprocessing gets less effective later on. A change in the irradiation geometry, e.g. through warping of the disk (Esin, Lasota & Hynes 2000), could drive such a change.

The dereddened spectral energy distributions (Hynes et al. 1998a) are very different to other systems (e.g. XTE J1859+226 shown below). There is an optical component, peaking at $`\mathrm{log}\nu =14.6`$–14.9 which appears to be at least partly from the companion, since this is larger and hotter than in other black hole systems. The residual optical spectrum looks like a relatively cool irradiated disk. This makes sense, as a large orbital period implies a large disk with an edge far from the X-ray source. The far-UV component looks more like the $`\nu ^{1/3}`$ spectrum of a viscously heated disk, but the transition between optical and UV is sharper than expected.

Coordinated HST and RXTE observations revealed correlated X-ray and optical/UV variability (Hynes et al. 1998b). We were able to cross-correlate the two light curves and derive optical lags of 10–20 s, likely indicating light travel times within the system. This is too short to originate on the companion star for which a minimum lag of $`40`$ s is expected at the orbital phase observed. Lags of 0–30 s are expected from reprocessing in the disk. It thus appears that either the companion is shielded from X-rays, or for some other reason does not reprocess variability.

## 4 XTE J1859+226

XTE J1859+226 was discovered in October 1999 by RXTE. The compact object is likely a black hole but neither this, nor the nature of the companion have been confirmed. An orbital period of 6.7 hr has been suggested (Uemura et al. 1999). The fast rise, exponential decay lightcurve is typical of BHXRTs, although the initial rise was slower than normal.

Fitting the broad 2175 Å interstellar feature yields an interstellar reddening of $`E(BV)=0.58\pm 0.07`$ (Hynes et al. 1999). We used this value to deredden the spectra and derive the intrinsic SEDs shown in Fig. 2. SEDs from early in the outburst could be well fitted by simple X-ray heated disk model, $`TR^{3/7}`$. The derived edge temperature remains constant as the system fades, implying that the edge of the hot region moves inward as the X-rays decline, likely either indicating a cooling wave or a self-shielding effect. The last SED is better fitted by a viscously heated disk model with an edge temperature of $`8000`$ K, consistent with disk instability models.

The far-UV spectrum is rich in broad emission lines, with superposed sharp interstellar absorption. C IV, He II, N V, O V and Si IV lines are definitely seen. C IV shows emission to 4000 km s-1. Ly$`\alpha `$ shows very broad absorption, extending to 12000 km s-1

## 5 Our New Target: XTE J1118+480

XTE J1118+480 was discovered in March 2000 as a very weak X-ray transient, although activity had started in January. The optical counterpart is bright ($`V13`$), making the X-ray to optical flux ratio exceptionally low. The source is at high latitude ($`+62^{}`$) and situated near the Lockman Hole, resulting in very low absorption. This combination of brightness and low absorption makes it ideal for UV spectroscopy, and so we have been able use the UV echelle modes of STIS.

HST observations have been ongoing since April 8, with coordinated RXTE and EUVE coverage. We have found that the IR–UV continuum is very flat (constant $`F_\nu `$;, Haswell, Hynes & King 2000, Hynes et al. 2000). The UV spectrum shows emission lines of He II, N V and Si IV, but carbon and oxygen are absent. This likely indicates that the material being transferred from the companion has been processed by the CNO cycle within the interior, and hence that the envelope has been lost (Haswell, Hynes & King 2000). The source exhibits remarkable rapid variability on timescales of seconds at all wavelengths where such variations can be detected. This includes the UV where STIS TIMETAG mode allowed resolution of variability up to 1 Hz or higher. A strong correlation is seen between the X-ray and UV light curves, with the UV lagging by 1–2 s behind the X-rays (Haswell et al. 2000).

## 6 Conclusions

HST has now observed a number of BHXRTs in outburst. Progress has been made towards understanding these objects, but new questions have been raised, both by observations and theoretical developments. The wide wavelength coverage and reliable flux calibration of HST make it an unrivalled tool for determining the IR–UV spectrum of BHXRTs. The diversity of SEDs observed so far, however, indicates that more than one source of optical/UV emission may be present, and careful modeling will be required to unambiguously separate these contributions. These include an accretion disk heated either by viscosity or X-ray irradiation, the companion star and possible synchrotron emission. Exploitation of HST’s rapid spectroscopy capability via echo-mapping provides additional clues to locate the emission source within the binary, as demonstrated for GRO J1655–40 and potentially for XTE J1118+480. These and other techniques allow us to watch the evolution of the components of the binary through an outburst, and hence improve our understanding of the outburst mechanism and the nature of accretion onto black holes.

### Acknowledgements

The results presented derive from HST/FOS programs GO4377, GO6017 and HST/STIS programs GO8245 and GO8647. We are grateful to the director for allowing us to bring forward the latter from Cycle 9 to observe XTE J1118+480. We would like to thank our co-investigators and collaborators on this project, especially Keith Horne, Chris Shrader, Wan Chen, Wei Cui, Mario Livio, Sylvain Chaty, Kieran O’Brien, Chris Mauche and Andrew King, as well as many others whom space precludes. Thanks also for technical support to Tony Roman, Kailash Sahu, Jeff Hayes, Tony Keyes, Ed Smith, Michael Rosa and all at STScI. Financial support for this project has been provided by NASA grants NAG5-3311, GO4377-02-92A and GO-6017-01-94A, and also by grant F/00-180/A from the Leverhulme Trust and grant SC1/180/96/326/G from the Nuffield Foundation.

### References

Cannizzo J.K., 1999, in Disk Instabilities in Close Binary Systems, S. Mineshige and J. C. Wheeler (eds.), UAP, p177
Charles P.A., 1998, in Theory of Black Hole Accretion Disks, M. A. Abramowicz and G. Bjornsson and J. E. Pringle (eds.), CUP, p1
Cheng F.H., Horne K., Panagia N., Shrader C.R., Gilmozzi R., Paresce F., Lund N., 1992, ApJ, 397, 664
Esin A.A., Lasota J.-P., Hynes R.I., 2000, A&A, 354, 987
Haswell C.A., Hynes R.I., King A.R., 2000, IAUC 7407
Haswell C.A., Skillman D., Patterson J., Hynes R.I., Cui W., 2000, IAUC 7427
Hynes R.I., Haswell C.A., Shrader C.R., Chen W., Horne K., Harlaftis E.T., O’Brien K., Hellier C., Fender R.P., 1998a, MNRAS, 300, 64
Hynes R.I., O’Brien K., Horne K., Chen W., Haswell C.A., 1998b, MNRAS, 299, L37
Hynes R.I., Haswell C.A., 1999, MNRAS, 303, 101
Hynes R.I., Haswell C.A., A.J. Norton, S. Chaty, 1999, IAUC 7294
Hynes R.I., Mauche C.W., Haswell C.A., Shrader C.R., Cui W., Chaty S., 2000, ApJL, accepted
Narayan R., Mahadevan R., Quataert E., 1998, in Theory of Black Hole Accretion Disks, M. A. Abramowicz and G. Bjornsson and J. E. Pringle (eds.), CUP, p148
Tanaka Y., Shibazaki N., 1996, ARA&A, 34, 607
Uemura M., Kato T., Pavlenko E., Shugarov S., Mitskevich M., 1999, IAUC 7303


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# Introduction

## Introduction

Despite intensive observational campaigns, no irrefutable identification of an isolated accreting neutron star (IANS) has been presented so far. Although six soft, weak sources, which are associated with isolated NSs, have been found in ROSAT fields, present X-ray and optical data do not allow an unambiguous determination of the physical mechanism responsible for their emission. These sources can be powered either by accretion of the interstellar gas onto old ($`10^{10}`$ yr) INSs or by the release of internal energy in relatively young ($`10^6`$ yr) cooling INSs (see  for recent review). ROSAT candidates, although relatively bright (up to $`1\mathrm{cts}\mathrm{s}^1`$), are intrinsically dim and their inferred luminosity ($`L10^{31}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$) is close to that expected from both close-by cooling and (most luminous) accreting INSs. Up to now only two optical counterparts have been possibly identified (RX J 1856-3754, ; RX J 0720-3125, ) and in both cases an optical excess over the low-frequency tail of the black body X-ray spectrum has been reported. While detailed multiwavelength observations with next-generation instruments may indeed be the key for assessing the true nature of these sources, other, indirect, approaches may be used to discriminate in favor of one of the two scenarios proposed so far.

Since early 90s, when in  it was suggested to search for IANSs with ROSAT satellite, several investigations on INSs have been done (see for exapmle , , and  for a review). Here we present our recent results in that field.

## Neutron Star Census

We have investigated, , how the present distribution of NSs in the different stages (Ejector, Propeller, Accretor and Georotator, see ) depends on the star mean velocity at birth (see Fig. 1). The fraction of Accretors was used to estimate the number of sources within 140 pc from the Sun which should have been detected by ROSAT. Most recent analysis of ROSAT data indicate that no more than $`10`$ non–optically identified sources can be accreting old INSs. This implies that the average velocity of the INSs population at birth has to exceed $`200\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, a figure which is consistent with those derived from radio pulsars statistics. We have found that this lower limit on the mean kick velocity is substantially the same either for a constant or a decaying $`B`$–field, unless the decay timescale is shorter than $`10^9`$ yr. Since observable accretion–powered INSs are slow objects, our results exclude also the possibility that the present velocity distribution of NSs is richer in low–velocity objects with respect to a Maxwellian. The paucity of accreting INSs seem to lend further support in favor of NSs as fast objects.

## Magnetic Field Decay

Magnetic field decay can operate in INSs. Probably, some of observed ROSAT INS candidates represent such exapmples (, ) We tried to evaluate the region of parameters which is excluded for models of the exponential magnetic field decay in INSs using the possibility that some of ROSAT soft X-ray sources are indeed old AINSs.

In this section we follow the article .

Here the field decay is assumed to have an exponential shape:

$$\mu =\mu _0e^{t/t_d},\mathrm{for}\mu >\mu _b$$
(1)
where $`\mu _0`$ is the initial magnetic moment ($`\mu =\frac{1}{2}B_pR_{NS}^3`$, here $`B_p`$ is the polar magnetic field, $`R_{NS}`$ is the NS radius), $`t_d`$ is the characteristic time scale of the decay, and $`\mu _b`$ is the bottom value of the magnetic momentum which is reached at the time

$$t_{cr}=t_d\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{\mu _0}{\mu _b}\right)$$
(2)
and does not change after that.

The intermediate values of $`t_d`$ ($`10^710^8\mathrm{yrs}`$) in combination with the intermediate values of $`\mu _b`$ ($`10^{28}10^{29.5}\mathrm{G}\mathrm{cm}^3`$) for $`\mu _0=10^{30}\mathrm{G}\mathrm{cm}^3`$ can be excluded for progenitors of isolated accreting NSs because NSs with such parameters would always remain on the Ejector stage and never pass to the accretion stage (see Fig. 2). Even if all modern candidates are not accreting objects, the possibility of limitations of magnetic field decay models based on future observations of isolated accreting NSs should be addressed.

For higher $`\mu _0`$ NSs should reach the stage of Propeller (i.e. $`p=p_E`$, where $`p_E`$– is the Ejector period) even for $`t_d<10^8`$ yrs, for weaker fields the “forbidden” region becomes wider. Critical period, $`p_E`$, corresponds to transision from the Propeller stage to the stage of Ejector, and is about 10-25 seconds for typical parameters. The results are dependent on the initial magnetic field, $`\mu _0`$, the ISM density, $`n`$, and NSs velocity, $`V`$. So here different ideas can be investigated.

In fact the limits obtained above are even stronger than they could be in nature, i.e. “forbidden” regions can be wider, because we did not take into account that NSs can spend some significant time (in the case with field decay) at the propeller stage (the spin-down rate at this stage is very uncertain, see the list of formulae, for example, in  or ). The calculations of this effect for different models of non-exponential field decay were studied separately in .

Note that there is another reason due to which a very fast decay down to small values of $`\mu _b`$ can also be excluded, because this would lead to a huge amount of accreting isolated NSs in drastic contrast with observations. This situation is similar to the “turn-off” of the magnetic field of an INS (i.e., quenching any magnetospheric effect on the accreting matter). So for any velocity and density distributions we should expect significantly more accreting isolated NSs than we know from ROSAT observations (of course, for high velocities X-ray sources will be very dim, but close NSs can be observed even for velocities $`100`$ km s-1).

## Log N – Log S distribution

In this section we briefly present our new results on INSs, .

We compute and compare the $`\mathrm{log}N`$$`\mathrm{log}S`$ distribution of both accreting and cooling NSs, to establish the relative contribution of the two populations to the observed number counts. Previous studies derived the $`\mathrm{log}N`$$`\mathrm{log}S`$ distribution of accretors (; ; ) assuming a NSs velocity distribution rich in slow stars ($`v<100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$). More recent measurements of pulsar velocities (e.g. ) and upper limits on the observed number of accretors in ROSAT surveys point, however, to a larger NS mean velocity (see  for a critical discussion). Recently Neühauser & Trümper () compared the number count distribution of the ROSAT isolated NS candidates with those of accretors and coolers. In  we address these issues in greater detail, also in the light of the latest contributions to the modeling of the evolution of Galactic NSs.

Our main results for AINSs are presented in Fig. 3.

Using “standard” assumptions on the velocity, spin period and magnetic field parameters, the accretion scenario can not explain the observed properties of the six ROSAT candidates.

A key result of our statistical analysis is that accretors should eventually become more abundant than coolers at fluxes below $`10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1.

## Conclusions

INSs are now a real Hot Point in Astrophysics. We tried to show how these objects are related with models of magnetic field decay, and with recent anf future X-ray observations.

Observed candidates propose “non-standard” properties of NSs. And future observations with XMM (Newton) and Chandra satellites can give more important facts.

## Acknowledgments

We wish to thank J. Lattimer, E. van den Heuvel and S. Campana for useful discussions. SBP and MEP also thank the University of Insubria for financial support and the Universities of Milano-Bicocca and Padova together with the Brera Observatory (Merate) for their kind hospitality. The work of SBP, VML and MEP was supported through grant RFBR 00-02-17164 and NTP Astronomy grants 1.4.4.1. and 1.4.2.3.


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# Cluster update and recognition

## Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, F.W. by grant SFB509 and C.v.F. by SFB237.


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# Unidentified Infrared Emission Bands in the Diffuse Interstellar MediumBased on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA members states (especially the PI countries France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) and with the participation of ISAS and NASA.

## 1 Introduction

The so-called unidentified infrared (UIR) emission bands include features that always occur together at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.2, and 12.7 $`\mu `$m. Since the first detection of the 11.2 $`\mu `$m band by Gillett, Forrest, & Merrill (1973) in planetary nebulae, the UIR bands have been observed in a variety of sources (see Tokunaga 1997 for a recent review). Puget, Léger, & Boulanger (1985) have proposed that the excess IRAS 12 $`\mu `$m emission observed in the Galactic diffuse clouds (Boulanger, Baud, & van Albada 1985) can be attributed to the longer wavelength UIR emission bands. The detection of these emission bands in the diffuse interstellar medium (DIM) has strongly favored this explanation of the excess IRAS 12 $`\mu `$m emission in the Galaxy (see Onaka et al. 1996; Mattila et al. 1996 and references therein). The consequences of this hypothesis imply that the carriers of the UIR bands play an important role in the energy balance and chemical processes in the Galaxy.

To date there is still no definite identification of the carriers of the UIR emission bands. Several carriers have been proposed: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs; Léger & Puget 1984; Allamandola, Tielens, & Barker 1985), quenched carbonaceous composite (QCC; Sakata et al. 1984), hydrogenated amorphous carbon (HAC; Duley & Williams 1981), and coal grains (Papoular et al. 1989). Among these the PAHs are the most thoroughly studied in both theoretical and laboratory studies, and therefore one can make quantitative comparison between the observations and model calculations. For example, one can compare the observed spectra with those of PAH spectra measured in the laboratory. One can also compare the observed relative UIR band intensities in different UV radiation environments with those predicted by the PAHs model. In the PAHs model, changes in the degree of dehydrogenation and/or in the relative abundance of neutral and ionic PAHs can change the near- and mid-infrared band intensities (e.g., Jourdain de Muizon, d’Hendecourt, & Geballe 1990; Schutte, Tielens, & Allamandola 1993; Allamandola, Hudgins, & Sandford 1999).

The DIM is an ideal environment for testing the PAHs model. The properties of dust grains particular to their formation place should be averaged out and the stable species should be abundant there. Studies of the UIR emission bands in the DIM covering a wide range of UV radiation field strengths uniquely test the physical process operating on the interstellar PAHs. The UIR band emission in the DIM, however, is difficult to observe with ground-based warm telescopes, and some bands are strongly absorbed in the terrestrial atmosphere. High sensitivity space-borne observations are required for this study. In this paper we present results from a large sample of mid-infrared spectrophotometeric observations in the DIM which were obtained from the Infrared Telescope in Space (IRTS) and the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). We discuss discrepancies between the present results and the predictions from the PAHs model.

## 2 Observations

The Mid-Infrared Spectrometer (MIRS) was one of the four science focal-plane instruments that flew aboard the orbiting IRTS. The IRTS was the first Japanese infrared space-borne telescope developed and operated in collaboration with NASA. It was launched on 1995 March 18 and surveyed $``$ 7$`\%`$ of the sky over the course of its 26-day mission life (Murakami et al. 1996). The MIRS had an aperture size of $`8^{}`$ $`\times `$ $`8^{}`$ and operated over a wavelength range of 4.5 to 11.7 $`\mu `$m with a resolution of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$$`\lambda `$ = 0.23 to 0.36 $`\mu `$m (Roellig et al. 1994). During the course of its mission, the MIRS observed part of the Galactic center and W51 regions and we present here the DIM data at $`l`$ = 0 to –12 with $`|b|`$ $``$ 2 and $`l`$ = 45 to 51 with $`|b|`$ $``$ 2. The uncertainty of the absolute calibration is about 10$`\%`$ (see Tanabé et al. 1997 for details of the MIRS calibration). The selected regions for this study did not include bright IRAS point sources, and the zodiacal background emission has been subtracted. To subtract the zodiacal background, we extracted background spectra that were observed by the MIRS at regions a few degrees of galactic latitude and longitude away from the selected regions. The uncertainties in the zodiacal emission subtraction in our selected regions are many times lower than the galactic plane emission there. The total far-infrared intensity, FIR, and optical depth at 100 $`\mu `$m, $`\tau _{100\mu m}`$, at each position have been obtained from Okumura (1998), who used the 155 $`\mu `$m continuum fluxes from the Far-Infrared Line Mapper (FILM) on board the IRTS (Okumura et al. 1996) and the IRAS Sky Survey Atlas (ISSA; Wheelock et al. 1994) 100 $`\mu `$m fluxes to derive those values (see also Okumura et al. 1999). The dust temperature, T, and $`\tau _{100\mu m}`$ were derived from a modified blackbody (a blackbody multiplied by a $`\lambda `$-2 dust emissivity law) fit to the 100 and 155 $`\mu `$m fluxes. The FIR is estimated as

$$FIR=\tau _{100\mu m}_0^{\mathrm{}}[100\mu m/\lambda (\mu m)]^2B_\lambda (T)𝑑\lambda ,$$
(1)
where Bλ(T) is the Planck function and $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength in $`\mu `$m. The FILM has a beam size of $`8^{}`$ $`\times `$ $`13^{}`$ and the ISSA 100 $`\mu `$m fluxes have been smoothed into a $`12^{}`$ resolution with a $`4^{}`$ bin. The FIR in our selected regions has a range of 4 $`\times `$ 10-6 to 1000 $`\times `$ 10-6 W m-2 sr-1. Following Okumura (1998) we estimate the incident radiation intensity in units of the interstellar radiation field of the solar neighborhood (= 1.6 $`\times `$ 10-6 W m-2, Habing 1968), G0, from the FIR as

$$G_0=\frac{4\pi FIR}{1.6\times 10^6<\tau _{abs}>},$$
(2)
where $`<\tau _{abs}>`$ is the absorption optical depth averaged over the incident radiation field. Since G0 defined here covers a wavelength range from UV to visible, it should be larger than the G0 defined by Habing (1968), in which the incident intensity includes only the UV range.

In addition to the MIRS data, we also included data of the observations of the Carina Nebula region with the low-resolution spectrometer (PHT-S) and long-wavelength spectrometer (LWS) on board the ISO (Kessler et al. 1996). The ISO observations were made in a two-dimensional raster mode with a spacing of $`3^{}`$ for a rectangular area of $`40^{}`$ $`\times `$ $`20^{}`$ centered at $`l`$ = 287.25 and $`b`$ = –0.6 (see Mizutani, Onaka, & Shibai 1999 for details of the observation). The observed region included the DIM and molecular clouds in the Carina Nebula. The PHT-S had an aperture size of $`24^{\prime \prime }`$ $`\times `$ $`24^{\prime \prime }`$ and operated over a wavelength range of 2.5 to 11.6 $`\mu `$m with a spectral resolution of about 90 (Lemke et al. 1996). Only the data between 5.7 and 11.6 $`\mu `$m is used in the present study. The PHT-S data were reduced by PIA version 8.1. Special care was taken for the effects after cosmic ray hits in the raster scan mode and the data affected by the cosmic ray hit were removed. The LWS observations were made in the full grating scanning mode (LW01) for 45 to 170 $`\mu `$m with a spectral resolution of about 200 (Clegg et al. 1996). The LWS beam size varies with detector, ranging from $`60^{\prime \prime }`$ to $`84^{\prime \prime }`$ FWHM (Gry 2000). The pipeline version 7 data products were used for the LWS data. The data were defringed by software developed based on the subroutine in the ISO Spectral Analysis Package (ISAP111The ISO Spectral Analysis Package (ISAP) is a joint development by the LWS and SWS Instrument Teams and Data Centers. Contributing institutes are CESR, IAS, IPAC, MPE, RAL and SRON.). The gaps between the detectors were corrected by scaling the fluxes relative to the SW2 detector such that the adjacent detector signals were connected smoothly. All the observed positions were quite bright in the far-infrared. Therefore the detector dark current was insignificant and we attributed the gaps mostly to uncertainties in the response or differences in the aperture size of each detector. The correction does not exceed 20% and it does not affect the conclusions of this paper. Because the LWS spectra are calibrated against a point-like source, a beam-size correction was needed for observations of diffuse sources. The values given in Table 7.1 of the LWS Data Users Manual (Trams et al. 1998) were fitted to a quadratic function of the wavelength and the beam-size correction was made based on the function. The resultant spectra can be well fitted with a blackbody times a $`\lambda ^1`$ emissivity. The values of FIR and G0 were derived in a similar manner as for the ISSA/FILM data, though we used a $`\lambda ^1`$ emissivity in the LWS data instead of a $`\lambda ^2`$ emissivity. The beam-size correction affects the FIR by about 30$`\%`$ and hence G0 by the same amount. The absolute values of FIR and G0 may have large uncertainties owing to this correction and the uncertainty in the beam size (Burgdorf et al. 1997), while their relative scale was less affected and the relative order was not affected at all. The following discussions are made mostly on an order-of-magnitude basis and are not affected by these uncertainties. Taking the value of $`<\tau _{abs}>`$/$`\tau _{100\mu m}`$ = 700 (Draine & Lee 1984), the range of FIR in our selected regions yields values for G0 of 3 to 4500. Total of 820 spectra were obtained for the following analysis.

## 3 Results

Since the extinction towards the Galactic center and W51 regions is high even in mid-infrared wavelengths, extinction corrections of the spectra of these regions were necessary. At each of the observed positions, we used the derived $`\tau _{100\mu m}`$ and then employed the extinction law of Mathis (1990) to correct for interstellar extinction. The extinction corrected UIR band ratios, which will be discussed later, show values by a few percent to 20$`\%`$ different compared to those without the extinction correction. The visual extinction towards the Carina Nebula is low, with an average $`A_V`$ of $``$ 0.5 (Feinstein, Marraco, & Muzzio 1973). Similar low extinction values have been obtained from the derived $`\tau _{100\mu m}`$. The low visual extinction corresponds to less than a 1$`\%`$ difference between the extinction-corrected and uncorrected UIR band ratios, and therefore, no extinction correction has been applied to the Carina Nebula spectra.

For all of the observed positions, the MIRS and PHT-S detected four UIR bands at 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, and 11.2 $`\mu `$m. These observed mid-infrared spectra are similar in shape to those taken in the DIM around the W51 region (Onaka et al. 1996). Figure 1 shows some of the observed spectra in our three observed regions, and they are quite similar to each other even though they are observed in different parts of the Galaxy. The intensities of the 6.2, 8.6, and 11.2 $`\mu `$m band relative to those of the 7.7 $`\mu `$m band have been derived. Following Onaka et al. (1996), we drew a straight line between the edges of the emission features for each band where the flux was assumed to come predominantly from the continuum and integrated the flux above the lines as a measure of the band intensities (see Figure 1). For the MIRS spectra, the wavelength points selected as continuum are 5.95 and 6.64 $`\mu `$m, 7.09 and 8.22 $`\mu `$m, 8.22 and 9.12 $`\mu `$m, and 10.91 and 11.59 $`\mu `$m for the 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, and 11.2 $`\mu `$m feature bands, respectively. Similar wavelength points were selected in the PHT-S spectra.

Figure 2 shows the plot of the relative band intensities of the 6.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m, 8.6/7.7 $`\mu `$m, and 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m vs. G0. No systematic variation is found in those figures. The ratios do not show any increasing or decreasing trend with G0. The average relative band intensity ratios for the 6.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m, 8.6/7.7 $`\mu `$m, and 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m are 0.39, 0.24, and 0.40, respectively.

## 4 Discussion

The finding of no systematic variation in the UIR band ratios over a wide range of G0 has also been reported in the interstellar medium (Boulanger et al. 1998; Uchida et al. 2000). Uchida et al. (2000) studied a sample of reflection nebulae and found that the UIR band ratios show no systematic variation over a range of hardness and strength of UV radiation fields (Teff = 6800 to 22,000 K and G0 = 40 to 1800). On the other hand, variations of the UIR band ratio have been observed in environments covering a wide range of physical and chemical conditions (e.g., Cohen et al. 1986; Bregman et al. 1994, 1995; Joblin et al. 1996; Roelfsema et al. 1996; Cesarsky et al. 1996; Lu 1998; Mattila, Lehtinen, & Lemke 1999). Since the present results together with the results of Uchida et al. (2000) suggest that the UIR band ratios are independent of the hardness and strength of the UV radiation field, there must be some other parameters that contribute to the variation in the strength of the UIR band emission in the interstellar medium. A plausible explanation of these conflicting results is that the physical and chemical properties of the carriers of the UIR bands vary in environments where the carriers have just formed or where the chemical abundances are different. For PAHs model, the newly formed PAHs consist of a large amount of unstable molecules, which have very different band ratios compared with those of the more stable ones (Allamandola et al. 1999). For QCC and coal models, the available oxygen can change the oxidization of these materials, which changes their emission band ratios (Sakata et al. 1987; Papoular et al. 1989). Further studies are needed to elucidate the cause of the variations. Because different authors use different continuum baselines in the derivation of the UIR band intensity, quantitative comparison of the derived value of the UIR band ratios in a certain UV radiation field strength is difficult. The variations found by those past studies could be within the range of the present data shown in Figure 2, but they are not correlated with G0 in the present results.

The PAHs model we will test is a general model without specifying its composition. In the PAHs model the 6.2 and 7.7 $`\mu `$m bands arise from the C–C stretching vibrations of the PAH molecules and the 8.6 and 11.2 $`\mu `$m bands arise from the C–H in-plane and out-of-plane bending vibrations, respectively. According to the proposed emission mechanisms, such as infrared fluorescence, the relative UIR band ratios should not change with G0. Any change in the band ratios must be associated with changes in the ionization, dehydrogenation, or size of the carriers. For instance, neutral PAHs show quite weak 6.2, 7.7, and 8.6 $`\mu `$m bands compared to the observed interstellar spectra, while these bands are enhanced significantly in ionized PAHs (Allamandola et al. 1999 and references therein). The observed PAH bands can be used to derive the physical and chemical properties of PAH molecules in the observed astronomical environments.

The 6.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio displays variations among and within sources covering a wide range of physical and chemical properties (Cohen et al. 1986; Bregman et al. 1995; Roelfsema et al. 1996; Lu 1998; Mattila et al. 1999). The variations could be due to the changes of mean energy of the incident UV photons or size of PAHs. Figure 2a shows that there is no systematic variation in the 6.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio with G0. The difference in excitation energy between the 6.2 and 7.7 $`\mu `$m bands is small and the variation in the spectrum of the diffuse interstellar radiation field should not be large enough to change this band ratio. Therefore, PAHs in the DIM do not have a systematic variation in their size distribution.

The 8.6/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio can be used as an indicator of the degree of dehydrogenation of PAHs. The ratio decreases if the degree of dehydrogenation of the PAHs increases (e.g., Jourdain de Muizon et al. 1990; Schutte et al. 1993). By comparing the calculated results to the observed PAH emission bands in the Orion Bar region, Schutte et al. (1993) concluded that the interstellar PAHs are almost fully hydrogenated. Allamandola, Tielens, & Barker (1989) also concluded that, based on the calculated hydrogen loss rates and rehydrogenation rates of PAHs, the interstellar PAHs are fully hydrogenated if the PAHs are larger than 25 to 30 carbon atoms. The present finding suggests that the degree of dehydrogenation of PAHs in the DIM is independent of G0 over G0 = 3 to 4500.

The ionization state of PAHs can be deduced from the relative intensities between the 7.7 and 11.2 $`\mu `$m band emission. For neutral PAHs the intensity of the 11.2 $`\mu `$m band emission is higher than those of the 7.7 $`\mu `$m band emission and vice versa for ionized PAHs (Schutte et al. 1993; Allamandola et al. 1999). A study of the spacing between the 6.2 and 7.7 $`\mu `$m band emission suggested that the interstellar PAHs have sizes of 50 to 80 carbon atoms (Hudgins & Allamandola 1999). Theoretical studies showed that a large fraction of neutral PAHs with 50 to 80 carbon atoms should exist in the DIM where G0 is $``$ 1, and they are almost completely positively ionized in reflection nebulae and photodissociation regions where G0 is $``$ 105 (Omont 1986; d’Hendecourt & Léger 1987; Verstraete et al. 1990; Bakes & Tielens 1994; Dartois & d’Hendecourt 1997). Since the exact composition of PAHs existing in space is still unknown, it is difficult to estimate their relative band ratios in neutral and ionized interstellar PAHs. We roughly estimate these ratios in the following by simple scaling.

Schutte et al. (1993) found that the 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio increases by a factor of 5.2 when they compared this band ratio in their standard model with those in the neutral PAHs model. Their standard model gave a good fit to the interstellar UIR bands emission in the Orion Bar, where the PAHs are suggested to be totally ionized in a recent study by Allamandola et al. (1999). Therefore, we first assume that the 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m ratio increases by a factor of 5.2 when the interstellar PAHs change from 100$`\%`$ ionized to 100$`\%`$ neutral. Then, we use the spectrum of the Orion Bar to derive the 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio for interstellar PAHs with 100$`\%`$ ionized, and finally multiply this derived band ratio by the factor 5.2 to obtain the 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio for interstellar PAHs of 100$`\%`$ neutral. By using the same baselines in the derivations of our UIR band intensities, we find that the Orion Bar emission shown in Allamandola et al. (1999) has a 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio of 0.3. Therefore, the 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio is assumed to have a value of 1.5 for 100$`\%`$ neutral PAHs in the interstellar medium. In figure 2c, almost all of the 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m ratios are less than 1.5, which suggests that only a small fraction of PAHs are neutral in the DIM. Assuming the value of the band ratio can be scaled linearly between 0.3 (100$`\%`$ ionized) and 1.5 (0$`\%`$ ionized) with the ionization fraction of interstellar PAHs, figure 2c suggests that the ionization fraction of PAHs in the DIM is between 60$`\%`$ and 100$`\%`$, with a mean value of 90$`\%`$, and that the degree of ionization shows no systematic variation in the range of G0 = 3 to 4500. The finding here is incompatible with those previous theoretical studies, and this discrepancy can be resolved if the recombination coefficients for electron-PAH ion interactions are much lower than those adopted in the previous theoretical studies.

The ionization fraction, f(+), of PAHs depends on the photoionization rate for the neutral PAHs, Rion, and the recombination rate for electron and PAH positive ion, Rrec, and can be written as

$$f(+)=\frac{R_{ion}}{R_{ion}+R_{rec}}.$$
(3)
The photoionization rate for neutral PAHs is proportional to the incident UV radiation intensity and the photoionization cross-section of the neutral PAHs. Based on the past laboratory measurement of the photoionization cross-section of smaller PAH molecule, benzene (C6H6), and together with their own measurements of two larger PAH molecules, pyrene (C16H10) and coronene (C24H12), Verstraete et al. (1990) concluded that the photoionization cross-sections of large PAH molecules (e.g., 80 carbon atoms) are proportional to their number of carbon atoms. On the other hand, laboratory measurements of the recombination coefficients Crec (neCrec = Rrec, where ne is the electron density) for C3H3+, C5H3+, C6H6+, C7H5+, and C10H8+ show values ranging from 3 $`\times `$ 10-7 to 10 $`\times `$ 10-7 cm3 s-1 at 300 K, and indicate no correlation between the measured coefficients and the number of carbon atoms in the ion (Abouelaziz et al. 1993). This differs from past theoretical studies, which used classical electrostatics theory to adopt a coefficient that is proportional to the size of the PAH. For an interstellar PAH with 50 carbon atoms at 300 K, these earlier studies would adopt Crec of about 1 $`\times `$ 10-5 cm3 s-1 in their ionization fraction calculations, which is about one to two orders of magnitude higher than those measured by Abouelaziz et al. (1993) for PAHs $``$ 10 carbon atoms. The lowest UV radiation field strength in our selected regions have G0 = 3, and for a PAH of 50 carbon atoms Rion is calculated as 3 $`\times `$ 10-8 s-1 (see Verstraete et al. 1990 for the calculations of Rion). By adopting a ne = 10-2 cm-3 in the DIM (Omont 1986), we find from equation (3) that in order for PAHs to have f(+) $``$ 90$`\%`$ (the mean value in figure 2c), Crec should be less than 3.3 $`\times `$ 10-7 cm3 s-1. Our estimate of Crec is by more than an order of magnitude lower than the theoretical calculations (Crec = 1 $`\times `$ 10-5 cm3 s-1), but they are quite close to the measured values of Abouelaziz et al. (1993). If we adopt the theoretically calculated Crec to estimate f(+) in equation (3), we find that f(+) is only 23$`\%`$ at G0 = 3 and is 100$`\%`$ at G0 = 4500. In this situation, the 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio will decrease from a value of 1.2 to 0.3 when the G0 increase from 3 to 4500. Additional laboratory measurements of Crec for larger PAHs (e.g., 50 to 100 carbon atoms) are definitely needed to make a better estimate of the ionization fraction of interstellar PAHs.

The above finding provides us useful information on the understanding of heating of the interstellar gas. Some studies have suggested that interstellar PAH molecules can be the dominant heating source of the interstellar H I gas if $``$ 10$`\%`$ of the cosmic abundance of carbon is locked up in PAHs (d’Hendecourt & Léger 1987; Verstraete et al. 1990). In those studies the neutral PAHs absorb interstellar UV photons and their ejected photoelectrons heat up the surrounding interstellar gas. A large population of neutral PAHs is therefore required for maintaining the balance between heating and cooling rates. On the other hand, another study showed that the interstellar PAHs with sizes less than 100 carbon atoms contribute only a part to the heating of the diffuse interstellar gas, and that the major part is provided by PAHs clusters and small graphitic grains (Bakes & Tielens 1994). The present result suggests that interstellar PAHs cannot be the dominant source of heating of the diffuse interstellar gas unless their abundance is much larger than those adopted in the past studies.

Finally, the present finding of no systematic variation in the UIR band ratios in the DIM covering the central and disk regions of the Galaxy over a wide range of UV radiation field strengths provides a new piece of information for the identification of the carriers of the UIR bands. In the PAHs model, the fitting of the observed UIR band emission in different astronomical environments requires a mixture of PAH molecules with different sizes and thermodynamical stability (Allamandola et al. 1999). Our finding suggests that the size distribution of the PAHs is the same in all locations and their thermodynamical stability is high. In the QCC and coal models, the enhancement of the 6.2, 7.7, and 8.6 $`\mu `$m bands has been attributed to oxidization (Sakata et al. 1987; Papoular et al. 1989). Therefore, the constant band ratio of 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m suggests that these species must be chemically stable in the DIM.

## 5 Summary

The major result of this paper is that there is no systematic variation in the UIR 6.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m, 8.6/7.7 $`\mu `$m, and 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratios in the DIM covering the central and disk regions of the Galaxy over a wide range of UV radiation field strengths (G0 = 3 to 4500). Comparing our results with the PAHs model: (1) the 6.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio suggests that PAHs in those environments have no systematic variation in their size distribution; (2) the 8.6/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio suggests that the degree of dehydrogenation of PAHs is independent of the strength of UV radiation field over a range of G0 = 3 to 4500; and (3) the 11.2/7.7 $`\mu `$m band ratio suggests that the PAHs are mostly ionized in the DIM even though the UV radiation field strength is low. The last finding is incompatible with past theoretical studies, in which a large fraction of neutral PAHs is predicted in this kind of environment. Laboratory measurements of the recombination coefficients of large PAHs are needed to make a better estimate of the ionization fraction of interstellar PAHs. The finding that interstellar PAHs have very low abundance of neutral state molecules in the DIM does not support the suggestion that PAH molecules are the dominant source of heating of the diffuse interstellar gas by photoelectric emission. Finally, the present results imply that the carriers of the UIR bands have constant physical and chemical properties in the DIM, and this new information could help in the identification of the carriers.

The ISOPHOT data presented in this paper were reduced using PIA, which is a joint development by the ESA Astrophysics Division and the ISOPHOT Consortium with the collaboration of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC). Contributing ISOPHOT Consortium institutes are DIAS, RAL, AIP, MPIK, and MPIA. We are grateful to Louis Allamandola, Douglas Hudgins, and Jesse Bregman for helpful discussions about interstellar PAHs. We also thank IPAC for their help in the pointing reconstruction of the IRTS and the entire IRTS team for their efforts in ensuring the success of the IRTS mission. We also thank K. Kawara, Y. Satoh, and the Japanese ISO team for their continuous help and encouragement. We thank M. Burgdorf for the latest information on the LWS beam and the LWS IDT in Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, particularly S. Sidher, for the LWS data reduction. This work was performed while K. W. C. held a National Research Council-(NASA Ames Research Center) Research Associateship, and was supported by NASA Grant 399-28-01. K. W. C is currently supported by the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Foreign Researchers. This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from JSPS.


text:
# Extra dimensions present a new flatness problem

## I INTRODUCTION

Theories with extra dimensions have long played a role in attempts to unify other forces with gravity historical . Traditional ideas about hiding extra dimensions involved making them compact and small small  (generally assumed to be of the order of the Planck length foot1 ), so that propagation of standard model matter in the extra dimensions requires energy of the inverse of the size of the extra dimensions. Thus, if the extra dimensions are small enough, they effectively decouple from the low-energy theory.

The mechanism of confining standard-model fields on $`(3+1)`$-dimensional subspaces (3-branes, or just branes) brane  of a higher-dimensional manifold leads to the possibility of scenarios with large extra dimensions. In models where the spacetime geometry is of a simple factorizable form, the space of extra dimensions (the bulk) may be compact and perhaps as large as a millimeter add . If the spacetime geometry has a nonfactorizable form, the extra dimensions may be warped and noncompact as in the work of Randall and Sundrum rs . The possibility of warped noncompact extra dimensions has extended our intuition about how extra spatial dimensions are manifest in four-dimensional effective field theories by showing that even if gravity propagates in non-compact higher dimensional spaces, four-dimensional observers may still empirically deduce a four-dimensional Newton’s law.

There has been a great deal of recent activity studying various aspects of cosmology in large extra dimension scenarios. Nonetheless, model building is still in its infancy and general features are still being uncovered. As a contribution to this effort, we examine here whether these large extra dimension scenarios possess an analog of the “flatness problem” existing in four-dimensional Friedmann–Robertson–Walker (FRW) cosmology. We find that there is most likely a higher dimensional flatness problem of character significantly different from that of the FRW flatness problem. Furthermore, unlike the flatness problem in an FRW cosmology, we will argue this problem is not easily solvable by inflation.

We do not present our analysis in the context of any concrete realistic model. As there is no unified theory that can address the question of initial conditions, our conclusions necessarily must be based on certain (plausible) assumptions. It is impossible to know if the fundamental theory will somehow naturally circumvent the difficulty we discuss. Also, we only address the issue of large (even infinitely extending) extra dimensions. We know that if the extra dimensions are macroscopic, effective field theories will be valid to describe the spacetime behavior and the calculations should be reliable.

In the rest of the Introduction, we shall lay out the assumptions under which our arguments apply. However, we first discuss the FRW flatness problem in a way that most closely parallels the flatness problem of large extra dimensions.

One way of viewing the FRW flatness problem is as a fine-tuning problem, associated with the fact that if the equation of state obeys $`\rho +3p>0`$, any deviation from spatial flatness in the early universe would, in a few expansion times, cause the universe either to collapse or to expand and become negative curvature dominated. Even an initial condition of exact flatness is problematic since spatially flat patches much larger than Planck size are unnatural because the Planck scale sets the energy scale associated with quantum gravitational fluctuations early in the universe. That is, even if the universe were initially globally FRW and perfectly spatially flat, any fluctuations would have destabilized spatial flatness early on, especially when the curvature of the spacetime was large enough for quantum gravitational fluctuations to be large.

Note that even without introducing the issue of quantum gravitational fluctuations there is the question of why the universe chose zero spatial curvature over a region that is much larger than the Planck scale to such a large degree of accuracy. There seem to be two options: (i) the FRW universe was nucleated by some quantum cosmological process to have exactly zero spatial curvature, or (ii) the FRW universe arose from a Planck-size flat patch which inflated to become our universe. The first of these options is possible, but not under computational control. The second of these options, usually referred to as inflation, is under computational control. The attraction of inflation, besides computational control, is that a physical mechanism to generate a large flat patch out of a tiny flat patch simultaneously solves other cosmological fine-tuning problems. It should be noted that even if inflation did not solve these other cosmological fine-tuning problems, the solution to the flatness problem alone would be enough reason to consider it seriously since there is no other known physical mechanism that can solve the flatness problem.

One may understand the FRW flatness problem as due to the fact that there is no symmetry that prefers flat spatial geometries, and even if the spatial geometry was spatially flat, there is no symmetry to protect the flatness. If one states the FRW flatness problem in those terms, it is easy to appreciate the problem we discuss. We will point out that Lorentz invariance on our brane requires that the entire spacetime possess an approximate $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry (not just our brane). Since bulk curvature would lead to $`SO(3,1)`$ violation observed on our brane, in the absence of some symmetry there must be some cosmological mechanism to flatten the bulk.

The relation between bulk flatness and Lorentz invariance is easier to appreciate if one notes that even in four-dimensional FRW models, the reason we observe Lorentz invariance today can be connected to the fact that our universe is flat and old. One begins to understand this by noting that the equivalence principle of general relativity, which protects Lorentz invariance of the ultraviolet (UV) limit of a field theory living on a smooth Lorentzian manifold, does not protect infrared (IR) physics from obtaining what appears to be Lorentz violating terms. This statement is in some sense obvious from the fact that field solutions generically may break the symmetry of the underlying spacetime (a type of spontaneous symmetry breaking). In fact, the curvature of spacetime generated in a four-dimensional FRW universe breaks the Lorentz isometry of the zero-energy vacuum spacetime. Let us see this explicitly. If the FRW metric is written as usual as

$$ds^2=dt^2a^2(t)d\stackrel{}{x}^2,$$
(1)
we can write the action of a free scalar field in this background as

$$S=d^4xa^3(t)(\varphi )^2=d^4x\left[1+3H_0\mathrm{\Delta }t+\mathrm{}\right]\left[(_0\varphi )^2(12H_0\mathrm{\Delta }t+\mathrm{})(_i\varphi )^2\right],$$
(2)
where $`H_0`$ is the present ($`t=t_0`$) expansion rate and $`\mathrm{\Delta }ttt_0`$. The different coefficients of $`(_0\varphi )^2`$ and $`(_i\varphi )^2`$ signal Lorentz violation. Clearly if the IR cutoff for the field theory is taken to be $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{IR}H_0`$, then $`H_0\mathrm{\Delta }t1`$, and one can work with a Lorentz invariant field theory foot2 . In other words, the field theory on the tangent space of the manifold is Lorentz invariant only if the IR cutoff is taken to be larger than $`H_0`$. Of course in this four-dimensional FRW case this field theory is really only valid on large scales (small UV energy cutoff), since the FRW metric is only valid on large scales during most of the history of the universe.

The only reason we ever deduced Lorentz invariance in the first place is because the spacetime curvature associated with the energy density in our universe is much smaller than the energy scales associated with our physics experiments involving the standard model of particle physics: we just can’t probe energy scales smaller than $`H_0`$ (a similar argument applies to planetary curvature, etc.). The reason energy scales associated with our physics experiments are small compared to the FRW spacetime curvature scale (the Hubble expansion rate $`H_0`$) is because the universe is old, i.e., the flatness problem foot3 . Since inflation solves the flatness problem, we can then say that our ability to observe Lorentz invariance today has much to do with the fact that inflation made our universe flat (neglecting any unaddressable metaphysical issues such as the anthropic principle).

Extending the analogy to extra dimension scenarios is not straightforward, however, because we do not really have a standard time-dependent model of brane/bulk cosmology including its “birth” braneearly . What we first establish in the next section of this paper is that departures from the $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry for the large scale higher dimensional background geometry will result in Lorentz violations for any field living in the bulk allgrav . We will find that the nature of Lorentz violations from bulk curvature is significantly different from the nature of Lorentz violations in a four-dimensional FRW universe. Namely, we will see that in some cases, the Lorentz symmetry is never recovered as the IR cutoff is taken to be arbitrarily large, unlike in the 4-D FRW case. This means that the four-dimensional equivalence principle does not necessarily result from a higher dimensional equivalence principle. This is what we will call the “inequivalence principle.” Hence, if we assume that the observed four-dimensional gravitational theory is Lorentz invariant (obeys the equivalence principle) to a high accuracy, say to scales of order $`H_0^1`$, an explanation is required.

As in the 4-D FRW model, two general classes of explanations exist. One is that for some reason the quantum gravitational dynamics is driven to initiate an $`SO(3,1)`$ invariant universe, and the other is that a field theoretical dynamical mechanism exists to drive the system to approximate $`SO(3,1)`$ invariance. The first explanation cannot be meaningfully addressed because we do not know the fundamental unified theory. Indeed, if such a mechanism existed, then that will most likely allow an alternative to inflation for solving the flatness problem. We thus take the latter approach, and make the assumption that the universe initially was in an $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry violating state, which is generic since there is no symmetry to protect $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry. (For instance, $`N=1`$ SUSY is compatible only with $`SO(3,2)`$ and $`SO(3,1)`$ isometries, but is generically broken with the presence of matter energy density.) Thus we will require spacetime expansion, which we will call bulk inflation, to eliminate the $`SO(3,1)`$ violating terms.

We find that in the most straightforward inflationary scenarios, the warp factor does not survive bulk inflation. Furthermore, we point out that for the large, flat, compact extra dimension scenarios, inflation at the effective field theory approximation cannot be used to flatten out any significant $`SO(3,1)`$ violating curvature because that would force the initial compact dimension size to be too small, i.e., smaller than the fundamental Planck length. This latter point has been addressed to a certain extent in Ref. linde . Finally, we find that $`SO(3,1)`$ violating curvature terms in the bulk can be experimentally constrained.

The order of presentation will be as follows. We first discuss how apparent Lorentz violations arise in effective field theories in a curved spacetime in higher dimensions. We then discuss in detail why inflation generically would be necessary in noncompact warped extra dimension scenarios. Finally, we discuss the possibility of finding evidence for extra dimensions through experimental observation of Lorentz violations and conclude.

## II THE INEQUIVALENCE PRINCIPLE

It is well known that in four dimensions, the IR limit of any effective field theory is sensitive to the background spacetime curvature, which generically induces Lorentz violations. Due to the equivalence principle, this Lorentz violation effect generically vanishes in the limit that the IR cutoff is taken to be large. However, what is not as well known (at least it is new to us) is that for any single dimensionally reduced field, increasing the IR cutoff will not lead to the recovery of Lorentz invariance if the $`SO(3,1)`$ violating curvature is due to warping in the extra dimensions. Hence, $`SO(3,1)`$ violating curvatures from extra dimensions induce a four-dimensional theory that violates the principle of equivalence. This is what we have referred to as the inequivalence principle. Another way of stating the inequivalence principle is that the equivalence principle of a higher dimensional gravitational field theory does not necessarily guarantee that the equivalence principle will be manifest for the dimensionally reduced effective field theory.

A perhaps noteworthy observation is that it is only an accident that we, as four-dimensional low energy observers, discovered Lorentz invariance as a fundamental symmetry of nature. If the total number spacetime dimensions is four and if we had been unlucky, spacetime curvature would have prevented us from ever deducing Lorentz invariance until our experiments reached an energy level above the curvature scale. As we will detail below, the situation in the brane scenario could have been worse. The inequivalence principle tells us that if we had been unlucky to be embedded in a higher dimensional spacetime with no $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry, it would have been very difficult to deduce that gravitons obey Lorentz invariance, even at short distances (short compared to the background curvature scale). This would be true irrespective of the energy probed by experiments, even if the energy were higher than the background curvature energy scale. This loss of Lorentz invariance in the UV limit is a signature of extra dimensions; it cannot be reproduced with any purely four-dimensional background curvature.

The loss of Lorentz invariance is connected to dimensional reduction. To see this, consider a higher dimensional spacetime. Finding a four-dimensional effective field theory description of a field propagating in higher dimensions usually requires introducing an infinite number of four-dimensional fields (a “KK tower”) and integrating over the coordinates of the extra dimensions. Let us denote these four-dimensional fields by $`X_n`$. The procedure for obtaining a four-dimensional effective field theory preserves the isometries, and thus the effective field theory for the $`X_n`$ is Lorentz invariant if the underlying higher dimensional spacetime possesses an $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry with respect to the four-dimensional coordinates of interest.

Now, what about the condition on the IR cutoff? An interesting feature of the four-dimensional effective theory for $`X_n`$ is that none of the individual kinetic terms for $`X_n`$ will recover Lorentz invariance even if one takes the IR cutoff to be large. This is because the Lorentz invariant tangent space of the higher dimensional manifold is never four dimensional! In other words, the IR cutoff scale for any single $`X_n`$ (for fixed $`n`$) is constrained to be be less than $`1/L`$ where $`L`$ is the length scale of the extra dimensions, because $`1/L`$ is the UV cutoff scale for $`X_n`$ (the field theory has been coarse-grained over length scales of $`1/L`$). One can describe the propagation in a five-dimensional manifold up to resolution of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{UV}`$ only when all the fields up to mass $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{UV}>1/L`$ are taken together. However, each individual $`X_n`$ never recovers Lorentz invariance.

Hence, we deduce two useful sufficient conditions for the existence of Lorentz violation in the four-dimensional effective theory of a field propagating in higher dimensions. First, there must be no $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry in $`D`$ dimensions, and second, the coarse-graining length scale (effective IR cutoff) must be much larger than the radius of curvature $`R`$: i.e., $`LR`$.

We now present toy models to illustrate the nature of Lorentz violating terms induced from extra dimensions. Consider a metric of the form

$$ds^2=A(t,U^M)dt^2B(t,U^M)d\stackrel{}{x}^2+G_{MN}(U^M)dU^MdU^N,$$
(3)
where $`U^M`$ are coordinates of the bulk and the $`U`$ dependence of $`A`$ and $`B`$ makes the global geometry nonfactorizable as in the model of Ref. rs . Since we are interested in cosmological solutions we have assumed that $`A`$ and $`B`$ are independent of the spatial coordinates of the brane and only depend on $`t`$, the comoving time coordinate of our universe. Furthermore, consider the situation in which we are interested in physics for energy scales much larger than $`_t\mathrm{ln}A`$ and $`_t\mathrm{ln}B`$. Then in the adiabatic approximation we can neglect the time dependence of $`A`$ and $`B`$ and set the time variable to a particular value $`t_0`$. Under these conditions, our generic manifold is approximately described by

$$ds^2=A(U^M)dt^2B(U^M)d\stackrel{}{x}^2+G_{MN}(U^M)dU^MdU^N,$$
(4)
where in general,

$$A(U)B(U),$$
(5)
because there is no fundamental symmetry imposing (or protecting) the condition $`A(U)=B(U)`$. This implies that there is no $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry generated by the Lorentz group acting on the coordinates $`(t,\stackrel{}{x})`$.

Although the Randall-Sundrum metric containing a single extra dimension with coordinate $`u`$ ($`ds^2=e^{2b|u|}(dt^2d\stackrel{}{x}^2)du^2`$) has an $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry ($`A(u)=B(u)`$), the question to address is why did the metric evolve to this form. Brane solutions in which the bulk is not $`SO(3,1)`$ isometric were recently constructed in Ref. bowcock , where the metric is given by

$$ds^2=h(u)dt^2u^2d\stackrel{}{x}^2h^1(u)du^2,$$
(6)
with $`h(u)=\mathrm{\Lambda }u^2/6\mu /u^2`$, where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a cosmological constant in the bulk and $`\mu `$ is a free constant parameter. If $`h(u)u^2`$, then this metric breaks the $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry moving .

Now consider a simple toy model that illustrates the breaking of the $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry. Assume we live in five dimensions and the extra spatial dimension has the topology of $`S^1/Z_2`$ with the radius of $`S^1`$ equal to $`L/\pi `$. Suppose the background stress energy is arranged to give the line element

$$ds^2=dt^2e^{2bu}d\stackrel{}{x}^2du^2,$$
(7)
where again, $`u`$ is the extra dimension coordinate static . Note that this metric is not diffeomorphic to that written by Randall and Sundrum rs ; notably, it is not a conformally flat spacetime. It is a static version of the cosmological spacetime presented in Ref. horizonevasion .

Now suppose that a free bulk scalar field $`\varphi `$ lives in the background of this spacetime. We will assume that its contribution to the vacuum energy has been fine-tuned to zero (i.e., this is not the bulk field determining the background geometry of the spacetime), and consider what this field looks like to a four-dimensional observer living on our brane. The action for this bulk scalar field is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }S_{\mathrm{bulk}}=d^5x\sqrt{g}\frac{1}{2}(\varphi )^2,$$
(8)
where $`g_{\mu \nu }(u)`$ is the $`(4+1)`$-dimensional metric of Eq. (7). We can consider what a four-dimensional observer will see by expanding this scalar field in a particular orthogonal basis

$$\varphi =\underset{m}{}Y_m(\stackrel{}{x},t)h_m(u),$$
(9)
where the $`h_m`$ satisfies

$$\frac{1}{\sqrt{g}}_u[\sqrt{g}_uh_n]=m_n^2h_n,$$
(10)
and the self-adjoint derivative condition implies

$$_uh_m|_{\mathrm{brane}\mathrm{i}}=0.$$
(11)
The basis functions $`h_n`$ satisfying these conditions can be written down explicitly:

$$h_{n0}=N_ne^{3bu/2}\left[\frac{2\pi n}{3bL}\mathrm{cos}\left(\frac{\pi n}{L}u\right)\mathrm{sin}\left(\frac{\pi n}{L}u\right)\right].$$
(12)
If we insist on the normalization

$$𝑑ue^{3bu}h_nh_m=\delta _{nm},$$
(13)
we have the normalization constant

$$N_{n0}^1=\sqrt{\frac{L}{2}}\sqrt{1+\left(\frac{2\pi n}{3bL}\right)^2}.$$
(14)
Putting this expansion into Eq. (8), we find the effective action ($`\stackrel{}{}^2_i_i^2`$)

$`\mathrm{\Delta }S_{\mathrm{bulk}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^4x\frac{1}{2}Y_0\left(_0^2+\alpha _{00}\stackrel{}{}^2m_0^2\right)Y_0}`$ (15)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{n0}{}}\left[{\displaystyle d^4xY_n\left(_0^2+\alpha _{nn}\stackrel{}{}^2m_n^2\right)Y_n}+{\displaystyle \underset{mn}{}}Y_m\alpha _{mn}\stackrel{}{}^2Y_n\right],`$
where we have defined an infinite dimensional matrix

$$\alpha _{rn}𝑑ue^{bu}h_m(u)h_n(u)\delta _{rn}$$
(16)
which characterizes the Lorentz noncovariant structure of the theory. Note that for a fixed index $`r`$ and a given field $`Y_r`$, only the off-diagonal components of $`\alpha _{rn}`$ seem to be responsible for the Lorentz non-covariant structure, because for the diagonal component we can always rescale the coordinates to obtain the usual covariant form. However, because the standard model fields confined to the brane reveals the “true geometry” of the underlying spacetime, it is not true that the field redefinition completely hides the apparent Lorentz violation even for a given diagonal sector. For example, if $`r=0`$ we can take $`xx\sqrt{\alpha _{00}}`$ in the first line of Eq. (15) to obtain

$$S_0^{\mathrm{scaled}}=d^4x\alpha _{00}^{3/2}\frac{1}{2}Y_0\left(_0^2+\stackrel{}{}^2m_0^2\right)Y_0,$$
(17)
apparently recovering Lorentz invariance for what we will call the $`00`$ sector.

It is manifest that two points that are a distance $`d`$ apart (as measured by the standard model physics of fields confined to our brane) are seen to be only a distance $`d/\sqrt{\alpha _{00}}`$ apart from the point of view of the effective four-dimensional field, which actually lives in higher dimensions. Of course there is no global coordinate transformation that one can make to have all diagonal $`nn`$ sectors Lorentz covariant simultaneously. Hence, at least with the off-diagonal terms neglected, each field $`Y_n`$ lives in a different apparent geometry; i.e., the effective distance that each field sees through its propagator is different even though the “true” distance in spacetime as measured by the standard model fields confined to the brane is the same. The distance $`d/\sqrt{\alpha _{00}}`$ is what an observer would deduce from an “inverse-square law” analysis, and hence we will refer to it as the “inverse-square distance.” The ratio of the inverse-square distance to the distance measured by fields confined to the brane is in this case just $`1/\sqrt{\alpha _{00}}`$. The fact that the ratio is not unity is nothing more than a consequence of the fact that the lightcone in the extra-dimensional spacetime is different from the lightcone of a field confined to the brane, as was discussed in Ref. horizonevasion . In other words, causal signals can take a shortcut through the extra dimensions to get to a point on the brane that is farther than where a causal signal confined to the brane can go for a fixed time. From a $`(3+1)`$-dimensional point of view, the higher dimensional signals seem acausal.

It is important to note that this noncovariant structure is independent of the basis chosen, and there is no coordinate redefinition nor field redefinition that will truly restore the Lorentz symmetry. Even more importantly, since the Lorentz violation structure is governed by the quantity $`bL`$ (which is independent of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{IR}`$, the IR cutoff of the $`3+1`$ dimensional momenta), increasing $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{IR}`$ does not lead to the recovery of Lorentz invariance for any one field $`Y_n`$. Hence, the inequivalence principle is manifest. As argued before, the fact that $`\alpha _{mn}\delta _{mn}`$ is a result of the fact that the underlying higher dimensional spacetime does not possess an $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry. Mathematically, this merely amounts to the fact that the partial differential equations governing the modes are not separable in the chosen coordinate directions.

Let us now examine the magnitude of these effects. The magnitude of the Lorentz-violating effects is characterized by the coefficients $`\alpha _{ij}`$. First note that in this model the Lorentz violating effects associated with the zero mode are not very large, because $`1\alpha _{00}3`$. In particular, the distances are only scaled by $`d/\sqrt{\alpha _{00}}`$. However, since the scalar field propagators behave approximately as the graviton propagator for Newton’s law, one can see that the “inverse-square” distance vs. luminosity distance comparisons can discriminate such scalings spintwo . We leave a more careful analysis of the observables to a future study. However, in the last section, we will explicitly show one possible experimental observable which is within the reach of upcoming gravitational experiments.

The effects for the higher mass mode can be extremely large, even if $`L^1`$ is much larger than electroweak energy scale. For instance, if $`e^{bL}1`$, we have

$$\alpha _{11}e^{2bL}\frac{29\pi ^2}{18b^3L^3},$$
(18)
which will be much larger than unity. Moreover, it is not always possible to treat the mixing of the zero-mode mass eigenstates with massive KK mass eigenstates as a perturbation because the mixing with massive modes can be equally large if $`e^{bL}`$ is large, as can be seen by

$$\alpha _{01}e^{bL/2}\frac{16\pi }{(bL)^{2/3}}\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}}.$$
(19)
In general, the zero mode truncation of the effective field theory in the $`bL1`$ limit is not valid because $`\alpha _{mn}`$ is much greater than unity if $`bL`$ is much greater than unity, and the field theory must be considered from a higher dimensional point of view. This may be true even though the nonzero modes (the zero mode is massless) can be quite massive since $`L^1`$ may need to be large enough to hide the higher dimensional behavior of gravity. Explicitly, the mass spectrum of the nonzero modes is given by

$$m_{n0}=\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{9b^2+\left(\frac{2\pi n}{L}\right)^2},$$
(20)
which would naively justify decoupling if $`b`$ or $`L^1`$ were sufficiently large. However, here in general, the mass eigenstates will not be momentum eigenstates, and there does not seem to be decoupling. What is clear, however, is that if we insist on a four-dimensional point of view, we have a theory in which the field labeled by different masses see a different effective geometry, i.e., the inverse-square distances corresponding to the same spacetime geometry distance are different for different four-dimensional effective fields.

Although the exact nature of the Lorentz violating effects characterized by $`\alpha _{mn}`$ is model dependent, its magnitude can be read off from the metric of the form given in Eq. (3). It is easy to show that in general whether $`\alpha _{mn}`$ is greater than or less than unity is roughly governed by the ratio

$$\alpha _{mn}\frac{B}{A},$$
(21)
where $`\mathrm{}`$ denotes an average over the extra dimensions. Hence, for spacetimes with $`B/A>1`$ we have an “acausal” effective theory while for $`B/A<1`$ , we have merely the momentum nonconserving Lorentz violating effects with respect to the off-diagonal terms of $`\alpha _{mn}`$.

Note that the existence of Lorentz violation generalizes to higher spin fields. Consider the graviton field $`h_{\mu \nu }`$, which is defined to be the zero mode of the metric perturbation

$$ds^2=A\left[(1+h_{00})dt^2\left(\frac{B}{A}\delta _{ij}h_{ij}\right)dx^idx^j\right]+G_{MN}dU^MdU^N,$$
(22)
where $`h_{\mu \nu }`$ only depends on $`(3+1)`$-dimensional coordinates. The graviton kinetic term will contain a term

$$Sd^nx\sqrt{AB^3}\sqrt{G}\frac{1}{4}\left[A^1(_0h^{\mu \nu }_0h_{\mu \nu })B^1(\stackrel{}{}h^{\mu \nu }\stackrel{}{}h_{\mu \nu })\right],$$
(23)
which is again Lorentz violating when integrated over the extra dimension coordinates $`U`$. Again, the metric implied by measurements of the brane-confined fields will be different from the constant metric obtained after integrating over $`U`$ in Eq. (23).

## III A new flatness problem

Since we have little control over the effective field theory in the context in which the extra dimensions are compactified to be Planck size, we will not discuss that scenario here. However, in the case in which the extra dimensions are large and flat add  or in the case in which the extra dimensions are warped and noncompact rs , we can ask in the context of an effective field theory whether there may be a flatness problem as outlined in the Introduction. As we shall argue, in these large extra dimension scenarios there are additional flatness problem complications that did not arise in the four-dimensional FRW cosmology. In what follows, we shall first identify the flatness problem in the warped extra dimensions scenario and then discuss the case of the large extra dimension scenario.

As discussed more fully in the previous section, a higher dimensional spacetime described by Eqs. (4) and (5) implies that any dimensionally reduced effective theory, including gravity, will generically violate Lorentz invariance. In the view of treating gravity as a theory of vielbeins in Minkowski spacetime, this means that the VEV of the vielbeins spontaneously break Lorentz invariance. Hence, in warped extra dimensions scenarios, it is crucial to explain why there is an $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry in the extra dimensions to an accuracy that allows four-dimensional gravity (or any other dimensionally reduced field) to be Lorentz invariant vacuum . Hence, in analogy to the FRW flatness problem, if we assume that the bulk fields dimensionally reduced to four dimensions are observed to obey Lorentz invariance (as the IR cutoff is taken to be arbitrarily large), we have an extra-dimensional flatness problem. This analogy is summarized in Table 1.

If a typical initial condition of early cosmology contains $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry violating curvature, the extra dimensional flatness problem is real and inflation may be required to eliminate it. Note that here we are making a crucial assumption that there is no fundamental reason (such as fundamental symmetry arguments or dynamical arguments) to choose an $`SO(3,1)`$ isometric manifold as the initial condition. Indeed, if there were such a mechanism, then one may be able to modify it and utilize it to replace inflation altogether.

Given that we use inflation to solve the FRW flatness problem, let’s see what normal inflation would do to solve the bulk flatness problem. Let’s extend the toy model of the previous section by allowing a brane scale factor $`a(t)`$:

$$ds^2=dt^2a^2(t)e^{2bu}d\stackrel{}{x}^2du^2,$$
(24)
where again, $`u`$ is the extra dimension coordinate and our flat brane is located at $`u=0`$. It is easy to see that no matter how much we inflate our brane by arranging $`a(t)`$ to grow exponentially, we will not recover the $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry.

One possible resolution to this problem is to inflate the $`u`$ dimension. The difficulty lies in inflating the extra dimensions to smooth out the $`SO(3,1)`$ invariance violating curvature while preserving the large warping. To see this, introduce a bulk scale factor $`c(t)`$ for the extra dimension. The toy metric is then

$$ds^2=dt^2a^2(t)e^{2bu}d\stackrel{}{x}^2c^2(t)du^2.$$
(25)
Inflating $`c(t)`$ (“bulk inflation”) will render the curvature set by $`b`$ harmless. One can see this by making the coordinate transformation $`\stackrel{~}{u}=cu`$, in which case the metric becomes

$$ds^2=\left[1\left(\frac{\dot{c}}{c}\right)^2\stackrel{~}{u}^2\right]dt^2a^2(t)e^{2b\stackrel{~}{u}/c}d\stackrel{}{x}^2d\stackrel{~}{u}^2+2\left(\frac{\dot{c}}{c}\right)\stackrel{~}{u}d\stackrel{~}{u}dt.$$
(26)
Now imagine $`c`$ inflates by large amount, after which $`\dot{c}/c0`$ (or at least $`\dot{c}/c<\dot{a}/a`$). Then the factor $`b/c`$, which sets the spatial curvature scale in the bulk, can be made arbitrarily small while still recovering $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry. Of course the price one pays here is that inflation of the bulk has inflated away the warp factor!

An obvious loophole in the argument thus far is the possibility of a hierarchy between the Lorentz violating curvature and the warp factor curvature. Then one may be able to inflate away the Lorentz violating curvature without erasing the warp factor. For example, if one complicates the toy metric a bit further and takes it to be

$$ds^2=e^{2ku}\left[dt^2a^2(t)e^{2bu}d\stackrel{}{x}^2\right]c^2(t)du^2$$
(27)
with $`kb`$, then bulk inflation may dilute away the curvature due to $`b`$ while maintaining the warp factor from $`k`$. The challenge then is to come up with a physical scenario with a large hierarchy between $`k`$ and $`b`$. Of course, there may be other solutions that involve the bulk inflating and then shrinking in such a way that the $`SO(3,1)`$ violating curvature is removed, but the main point still stands: inflationary model building has a new problem to solve.

Finally, consider the large compact extra dimension scenarios add  with $`r`$ extra spatial dimensions. Imagine that an $`SO(3,1)`$ violating metric of the form Eq. (25) has been inflated as in Eq. (26) to end with an acceptably flat, compact extra dimension. Let us parameterize such a metric as

$$ds^2=dt^2a^2(t)e^{2bu}d\stackrel{}{x}^2c^2(t)\delta _{MN}dU^MdU^N$$
(28)
where $`U^M`$ correspond to the compact extra dimensions where $`M`$ runs through 4 to $`3+r`$. If the extra dimensions described by the coordinates $`U`$ are compact, then inflation through $`c(t)`$ poses the danger of the compact dimensions being initially too small to be described by an effective field theory. More specifically, let us define the total expansion of the extra dimensions between some initial time $`t_i`$ and today ($`t_0`$) as

$$E=\frac{c(t_0)}{c(t_i)}=\frac{b}{H_0},$$
(29)
where the second equality is required by the requirement that the curvature not violate $`SO(3,1)`$ invariance out to scale of $`H_0^1`$. Suppose the size of the extra dimensions is initially $`l_i`$. After inflation, the size of the extra dimensions is $`l_0=l_iE`$. Then since the four-dimensional Planck scale requires $`l_0^rM^{2+r}M_{Pl}^2`$ where $`M`$ is the $`r`$-dimensional Planck scale, we find

$$\left(\frac{M^2b}{M_{Pl}^2H_0}\right)^{1/r}M=\frac{1}{l_i}.$$
(30)
If we require an effective field theory description to be valid by imposing $`l_i^1M`$, we find

$$bH_0\left(\frac{M_{Pl}}{M}\right)^2.$$
(31)
This means that if we require that the fundamental Planck scale $`M`$ to be $`M1`$ TeV, we find that the curvature in the bulk before bulk inflation can be only very tiny, $`b10^1`$eV. Hence, we find that for large compact extra dimensions, only very tiny curvatures can be smoothed out by inflation. This suggests that a non-quantum-gravitational theory of inflation cannot smooth away the bulk curvature, and most likely some fundamental symmetry must play a role in initially setting the $`SO(3,1)`$ violating curvature to zero. A related discussion can be found in Ref. linde .

Let us reiterate the main point of this section which is the main result of this paper. For noncompact warped extra dimension scenarios, one must invoke a mechanism such as inflation to smooth out the $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry violating curvature to obtain a Lorentz invariant effective field theory. However, the difficulty with this resolution is that in such an inflationary scenario, the bulk warp factor that one needs to localize gravity may be inflated away altogether. Hence, the new flatness problem is to inflate away the $`SO(3,1)`$ violating curvature selectively while preserving a large warp factor. In the case of large compact extra dimensions, we find that inflation at the level of an effective field theory generically cannot make the bulk flat.

## IV Conclusion

We have shown that curvature in the bulk leads to an apparent breaking of Lorentz symmetry with respect to an observer living on the brane observing a field propagating in higher dimensions. Unlike the $`SO(3,1)`$ violation in the four-dimensional world due to curvature, Lorentz violation in theories with fields propagating in higher dimensions persists as long as the spacetime does not possess an $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry, no matter how large of an energy the four-dimensional effective field theory is probed. This is in contrast with what is dictated by the equivalence principle in four dimensions. We called this apparent UV-limit-persisting violation of four-dimensional equivalence principle for dimensionally reduced theories the “inequivalence principle.” Note that Lorentz violation for the dimensionally reduced theory is true even when the brane has an $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry. Furthermore, the mismatch between the brane isometry group and the full spacetime isometry group results in an ambiguous geometrical picture from a four-dimensional empirical point of view regardless of the symmetry group.

This implies a new flatness problem for cosmological scenarios having large (possibly noncompact) extra dimensions. For warped noncompact extra dimensions scenarios, the problem is to come up with a mechanism to flatten the $`SO(3,1)`$ violating wrinkles while preserving the large warp factor necessary for graviton trapping. Inflation generically helps to smooth away the wrinkle, but it also eliminates the warp factor. For flat compact large extra dimensions scenarios, we demonstrated that inflation at the effective field theory level is not sufficient to smooth away any significant curvature in the bulk.

It is tempting to speculate that the first signatures for large extra dimensions may come from deducing the existence of Lorentz violations in the early universe. This would be possible only if the observable anomalies in the early universe arising from Lorentz violations are sufficiently distinct from the anomalies arising from other effects. Indeed, since in most popular scenarios only gravity and other extremely weakly interacting (with the SM fields) fields propagate in the bulk, it may be difficult to observe the Lorentz violations with respect to the zero modes of these fields unless the violation is extreme.

One Lorentz violating observable characteristic of the inequivalence principle is the wavelength independent deviation of signal propagation speed. For example, for the free scalar field of Eq. (8) propagating in a five-dimensional background of Eq. (7), one can solve the wave equation perturbatively, perturbing with the parameter $`bL`$ where $`b`$ characterized the Lorentz violating curvature and $`L`$ is the characteristic size of the extra dimension. One can write one of the modes as

$$\varphi \frac{f(u)}{a}e^{iE_kt}e^{i\stackrel{}{k}\stackrel{}{x}},$$
(32)
where

$$f=c_0\left[1+b\stackrel{}{k}^2\left(\frac{u^3}{3}\frac{Lu^2}{2}\right)\right],$$
(33)
and

$$E_k=\left(1+\frac{1}{2}bL\right)|\stackrel{}{k}|.$$
(34)
This implies that the group velocity is

$$\frac{E_k}{|\stackrel{}{k}|}=1+\frac{bL}{2},$$
(35)
in agreement with Eq. (15) since there we have

$$\frac{E_k}{|\stackrel{}{k}|}=\sqrt{\alpha _{00}}.$$
(36)
As we have argued before, the propagation speed of gravitational waves will be similar. Hence, we conclude that one may be able to constrain the bulk-curvature violating $`SO(3,1)`$ isometry by comparing the gravitational wave arrival time and the light arrival time.

Imagine measuring the time correlation of the arrival of the gravitational wave and light pulses from a gamma-ray burst. Taking the gamma-ray burst to be at a distance $`D=1000`$ Mpc $`10^{17}`$ s, and assuming a resolution for the arrival times of the pulses of $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=1`$ s, we would be able to constrain the Lorentz violating curvature to be smaller than

$$\frac{bL}{2}<\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t}{D}=10^{17}$$
(37)
if no time lag is detected.

In conclusion, any realistic cosmological model with extra dimensions must account for a mechanism to generate approximate Lorentz symmetry for fields in the bulk, if the dimensionally reduced bulk field such as the graviton can be shown to be approximately Lorentz invariant. If we are lucky, perhaps nature will give us a clue regarding the extra dimensions through tests of Lorentz violations in the graviton sector and any other sector that may live in extra dimensions.

###### Acknowledgements.

DJHC thanks L. Everett, G. L. Kane, J. Wang, J. Liu, J. Lu, and R. Garisto for interesting conversations. DJHC was supported by the Department of Energy. EWK was supported by the Department of Energy and NASA under Grant NAG5-7092.