THE WARPING OF EXTRA SPACES ACCELERATES THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE
Generic cosmological models derived from higher-dimensional theories with warped extra-dimensions have a nonzero cosmological constant-like term induced on the 3 + 1 space–time, or a physical three-brane. In the scenario where this 3 + 1 space–time is an inflating de Sitter "bran" embedded in a higher-dimensional space–time, described by warped geometry, the four-dimensional cosmological term is determined in terms of two length scales: one is a scale associated with the size of extra-dimension(s) and the other is a scale associated with the warping of extra-space(s). The existence of this term in four dimensions provides a tantalizing possibility of explaining the observed accelerating expansion of the universe from fundamental theories of gravity, e.g. string theory.