Extra Dimensions Beyond the Horizon

We discuss an extra-dimensional braneworld with a 5th dimension compactified on a circle. As a characteristic feature, the warp factor is hyperbolic and separates the hidden and visible branes by a bulk horizon without a singularity. The two most widely separated scales of 4D physics - the 4D Planck mass and 4D cosmological constant - are determined by two physical scales in the extra dimension, namely: $(i)$ the proper size of the extra dimension, $R$, and, $(ii)$ the distance between the visible brane and the horizon, $R_0$. A realistic scale hierarchy between 4D Planck mass and 4D cosmological constant is obtained for $R/R_0\sim2.34$. The usual fine tuning is not reduced but promoted to a fine tuning of two separate brane energy densities that must approach the fundamental scale of the model with very high precision. Our scenario is based on an exact solution to the 5D Einstein equations with a strictly empty bulk and Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker metric on the 4D branes. This requires positive 4D brane energy densities and describes an adiabatic runaway solution in agreement with the de Sitter swampland conjecture. The Kaluza-Klein (KK) graviton states are solutions of a modified P\"oschl-Teller potential which permits a discrete graviton spectrum of $\textit{exactly two}$ modes. In addition to the usual massless graviton, our scenario predicts an extra massive spin-2 graviton with a mass gap of $m_1=\sqrt{2}H_0\approx2\times10^{-33}\,\mathrm{eV}$ which might be detectable in the foreseeable future. A KK tower of gravitons, or a possible continuum of massive graviton states, is prohibited by unitarity with respect to the horizon. We discuss hurdles in turning this model into a realistic cosmology at all times, which points us towards 4D brane tensions that that must be raising towards the fundamental scale of the model, while the observable 4D expansion rate is decreasing.
Comment: 33 pages, 2 figures