Induced Matter Theory of gravity from a Weitzenböck 5D vacuum and pre-big bang collapse of the universe

Abstract

We extend the Induced Matter Theory of gravity (IMT) to 5D curved spacetimes by using the Weitzenb\"ock representation of connections on a 5D curved spacetime. In this representation the 5D curvature tensor becomes null, so that we can make a static foliation on the extra noncompact coordinate to induce in the Weitzenb\"ock representation the Einstein equations. Once we have done it, we can rewrite the effective 4D Einstein equations in the Levi-Civita representation. This generalization of IMT opens a huge window of possible applications for this theory. A pre-big bang collapsing scenario is explored as an example.