Curved dilatonic brane worlds -: art. no. 084015

We construct a broad family of exact solutions to the five-dimensional Einstein equations coupled to a scalar field with an exponential potential. Embedding a three-brane in these bulk space-times in a particular way, we obtain a class of self-tuned curved brane worlds in which the vacuum energy on the brane is gravitationally idle, the four-dimensional geometry being insensitive to the value of the brane tension. This self-tuning arises from cancellations, enforced by the junction conditions, between the scalar field potential, the brane vacuum energy, and the matter on the brane. Finally, we study some physically relevant examples and their dynamics.