Inflation, braneworlds and quintessence

Inflationary cosmology is developed in the second Randall-Sundrum braneworl d scenario, where the accelerated expansion arises through potentials that are too steep to drive inflation in conventional cosmology. A relationship between the scalar and tensor perturbation spectra is derived that is indep endent of both the inflaton potential and the brane tension. It is found th at a single field with an inverse power law potential can act as both the i nflaton and the quintessence field for suitable values of the brane tension . (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.