Extra-Dimensional “Metamaterials”: A Model of Inflation Due to a Metric Signature Transition

Abstract

Lattices of topological defects, such as Abrikosov lattices and domain wall lattices, often arise as metastable ground states in higher-dimensional field theoretical models. We demonstrate that such lattice states may be described as extra-dimensional “metamaterials” via higher-dimensional effective medium theory. A 4 + 1 dimensional extension of Maxwell electrodynamics with a compactified time-like dimension is considered as an example. It is demonstrated that from the point of view of macroscopic electrodynamics an Abrikosov lattice state in such a 4 + 1 dimensional spacetime may be described as a uniaxial hyperbolic medium. Extraordinary photons perceive this medium as a 3 + 1 dimensional Minkowski spacetime in which one of the original spatial dimensions plays the role of a new time-like coordinate. Since the metric signature of this effective spacetime depends on the Abrikosov lattice periodicity, the described model may be useful in studying metric signature transitions.