Brane Worlds in Collision

We obtain an exact solution of the supergravity equations of motion in which the four-dimensional observed Universe is one of a number of colliding D3 branes in a Calabi-Yau background. The collision results in the ten-dimensional spacetime splitting into disconnected regions, bounded by curvature singularities. However, near the D3 branes the metric remains static during and after the collision. We also obtain a general class of solutions representing $p$-brane collisions in arbitrary dimensions, including one in which the universe ends with the mutual annihilation of a positive-tension and a negative-tension 3 brane.

Figure 1

The level sets of $\Phi (\mathbf{y})$ for two mass points: The universe after the collision is confined inside a level set $\Phi (\mathbf{y})>-ht$. As time progresses, the level set $\partial D_t$ shrinks and splits into two components, which then shrink around the two D3 branes.