Thomas Van Riet

One-parameter solutions in supergravity carried by scalars and a metric trace out curves on the scalar manifold. In ungauged supergravity these curves describe a geodesic motion. It is known that a geodesic motion sometimes occurs in the presence of a scalar potential and for time-dependent solutions this can happen for scaling cosmologies. This note contains a further study of such solutions in the context of pseudo-supersymmetry for multi-field systems whose first-order equations we derive using a Bogomol'nyi-like method. In particular we show that scaling solutions that are pseudo-BPS must describe geodesic curves. Furthermore, we clarify how to solve the geodesic equations of motion when the scalar manifold is a maximally non-compact coset such as occurs in maximal supergravity. This relies upon a parametrization of the coset in the Borel gauge. We then illustrate this with the cosmological solutions of higher-dimensional gravity compactified on a $n$-torus.

We construct exact cosmological scaling solutions in N=8 gauged supergravity. We restrict to solutions for which the scalar fields trace out geodesic curves on the scalar manifold. Under these restrictions it is shown that the axionic scalars are necessarily constant. The potential is then a sum of exponentials and has a very specific form that allows for scaling solutions. The scaling solutions describe eternal accelerating and decelerating power-law universes, which are all unstable. An uplift of the solutions to 11-dimensional supergravity is carried out and the resulting timedependent geometries are discussed. In the discussion we briefly comment on the fact that N=2 gauged supergravity allows stable scaling solutions.