Brane cosmological evolution in a bulk with cosmological constant

We consider the cosmology of a "3-brane universe" in a five dimensional (bulk) space-time with a cosmological constant. We show that Einstein's equations admit a first integral, analogous to the first Friedmann equation, which governs the evolution of the metric in the brane, whatever the time evolution of the metric along the fifth dimension. We thus obtain the cosmological evolution in the brane for any equation of state describing the matter in the brane, without needing the dependence of the metric on the fifth dimension. In the particular case p = wp (w = constant), we give explicit expressions for the time evolution of the brane scale factor, which show that standard cosmological evolution can be obtained (after an early non conventional phase) in a scenario a la Randall and Sundrum, where a brane tension compensates the bulk cosmological constant. We also show that a tiny deviation from exact compensation leads to an effective cosmological constant at late time. Moreover, when the metric along the fifth dimension is static, we are able to extend the solution found on the brane to the whole spacetime. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.