Effective theories and black hole production in warped compactifications

We investigate aspects of the four-dimensional (4D) effective description o f brane world scenarios based on warped compactification on anti-de Sitter space. The low-energy dynamics is described by visible matter gravitational ly coupled to a "dark" conformal field theory. We give the linearized descr iption of the 4D stress tensor corresponding to an arbitrary 5D matter dist ribution. In particular a 5D falling particle corresponds to a 4D expanding shell, giving a 4D interpretation of a trajectory that misses a black hole only by moving in the fifth dimension. Breakdown of the effective descript ion occurs when either five-dimensional physics or strong gravity becomes i mportant. In scenarios with a TeV brane, the latter can happen through the production of black holes near the TeV scale. This could provide an interes ting experimental window on quantum black hole dynamics. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.