Cosmology and hierarchy in stabilized Randall-Sundrum models

We consider the cosmology and hierarchy of scales in models with branes immersed in a five-dimensional curved spacetime subject to radion stabilization. The universe naturally find itself in the radiation-dominated epoch when the inter-brane spacing is static and stable, independent of the form of the stabilizing potential. We recover the standard Friedmann equations without assuming a specific form for the bulk energy-momentum tensor. We address the hierarchy problem in the context of a quartic and exponential stabilizing potential, and find that in either case the presence of a negative tension brane is required and that the string scale can be as low as the electroweak scale, In the situation of self-tuning branes (corresponding to an exponential potential) where the bulk cosmological constant is set to zero, the brane tensions have hierarchical values.