Brane world cosmology with Gauss-Bonnet and induced gravity terms

In this thesis we investigate certain cosmological brane world models of the Randall-Sundrum type. The models are motivated by string theory but we focus on the phenomenology of the cosmology. Two models of specific interest are the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP, induced-gravity) model, where the brane action is modified, and the Gauss-Bonnet model where the bulk action is modified. Both of these modifications maybe motivated by string theory. We provide a brief review of Randall-Sundrum models and then consider the Kaluza-Klein modes on Minkowski and de Sitter branes, in both the two and one brane cases. The spectrum obtained for the de Sitter branes is a new result. We then consider a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker brane in order to investigate the cosmological dynamics on the brane. We present a brief discussion of the DGP and Gauss-Bonnet brane worlds. We then investigate the Gauss-Bonnet-Induced-Gravity (GBIG) model where the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) bulk term is combined with the induced-gravity (IG) brane term of the DGP model. We present a thorough investigation of cosmological dynamics, in particular focusing on GBIG models that behave like self-accelerating DGP models at late times but at early times show the remarkable feature of a finite-temperature Big Bang. We also discuss the constraints from observations, including ages and Big Bang nucleosynthesis.