POWER-LAW TYPE SOLUTIONS OF FOURTH-ORDER GRAVITY FOR MULTIDIMENSIONAL BIANCHI I UNIVERSES

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the application of computer algebra to the study of solutions of the field equations derived from a non-linear Lagrangian, as suggested by recently proposed unified theories. More precisely, we restrict ourselves to the most general quadratic Lagrangian, i.e. containing quadratic contributions in the different curvature tensors exclusively. The corresponding field equations are then fourth-order in the metric tensor components. The cosmological models studied are the simplest ones in the class of spatially homogeneous but anisotropic models, i.e. Bianchi I models. For these models, we consider only power-law type solutions of the field equations. All the solutions of the associated system of algebraic equations are found, using computer algebra, from a search of its Groebner bases. While, in space dimension d=3, the Einsteinian-Kasner metric is still the most general power-law type solution, for d>3, no solution, other than the Minkowski space-time, is common to the three systems of equations corresponding to the three contributions to the Lagrangian density. In the case of a pure Riemann-squared contribution to the Lagrangian (suggested by a recent calculation of the effective action for the heterotic string), the possibility exists to realize a splitting of the d-dimensional space into a (d−3)-dimensional internal space and a physical 3-dimensional space, the latter expanding in time as a power bigger than 2 (about 4.5 when d=9).