Author(s)

Gary Bruce Tupper^1*, Mark Marais², Jose Abdella Helayël-Neto³

¹Department of Physics, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, South Africa.
²Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Symphony Way, Bellville, South Africa.
³Centre for Brazilian Research in Physics, Rua Dr. Xavier Sigaud, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

The Stephani universe is an inhomogeneous alternative to ΛCDM. We show that the exotic fluid driving the Stephani exact solution of Einstein’s equations is an unusual form of k-essence that is linear in “velocity”. Much as the Stephani universe can be embedded into (a section of) flat 5-d Minkowski space-time, we show that the k-essence obtains through dimensional reduction of a 5-d strongly coupled non-linear “electrodynamics” that, in the empty Stephani universe, corresponds to space filling magnetic branes in string/M-theory.

Inhomogeneous Cosmology, K-Essence

Tupper, G.B., Marais, M. and Helayël-Neto, J.A. (2021) The Stephani Universe, K-Essence and Strings in the 5th Dimension. Open Access Library Journal, 8, 1-6. doi: 10.4236/oalib.1103654.