The Cosmology Of Extra Dimensions And Varying Fundamental Constants

The workshop on the cosmology of extra dimensions and varying fundamental constants was part of JENAM 2002, held in Porto in September 2002. It was the first major international workshop devoted to this topic. It brought together string theorists, particle physicists, theoretical and observational cosmologists, relativists and observational astrophysicists.

The overall motivation for the workshop was to discuss the current theoretical motivations for the existence of additional space-time dimensions, and to confront these expectations with existing or upcoming observational and experimental tests. The interaction between specialists in different areas was quite fruitful, and a number of outstanding issues were identified which are likely to become the main paths of research to be explored in this area in the coming years.