Localising gravity in composite monopole brane worlds without bulk cosmological constant

We study a 7-dimensional brane world scenario with a Ricci-flat 3-brane residing in the core of a composite monopole defect, i.e., a defect composed of a 't Hooft-Polyakov and a global monopole. Admitting a direct interaction between the two bosonic sectors of the theory, we analyse the structure of the space-time in the limits of small, respectively large direct interaction coupling constant. For large direct interaction, the global monopole disappears from the system and leaves behind a negative cosmological constant in the bulk such that gravity-localising solutions are possible without a priori introduction of a bulk cosmological constant. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.