Probe brane dynamics and the cosmological constant

Recently a brane world perspective on the cosmological constant and the hierarchy problems was presented. Here, we elaborate on some aspects of that particular scenario and discuss the stability of the stationary brane solution and the dynamics of a probe brane. Even though the brane is unstable under a small perturbation from its stationary position, such instability is harmless when the 4-D cosmological constant is very small, as is the case of our universe. One may also introduce radion stabilizing potentials in a more realistic scenario. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.