Naked singularity and Gauss-Bonnet term in brane world scenarios

We add a Gauss-Bonnet term to the Einstein-Hilbert action and study the rec ent proposal to solve the cosmological constant problem. We also consider t he possibility of adding a dilaton potential to the action. Tn the absence of supersymmetry, we obtain first order Bogomol'nyi equation as a solution- generating method in our scenario. When the coefficient of the Gauss-Bonnet term is positive, the dilaton potential is bounded below. Assuming a simpl e double-well potential, we Find the dilaton field to be a kink in the fift h dimension. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.