Anisotropy and inflation in Bianchi I braneworlds

After a more general assumption on the influence of the bulk on the brane, we extend some conclusions by Maartens et al (2001 Phys. Rev. D 63 063509) and Santos et al (2001 Phys. Rev. D 64 063506) on the asymptotic behaviour of Bianchi I braneworlds. As a consequence of the nonlocal anisotropic stresses induced by the bulk, in most of our models, the brane does not isotropize and the nonlocal energy does not vanish in the limit in which the mean radius goes to infinity. We have also found the intriguing possibility that the inflation due to the cosmological constant might be prevented by the interaction with the bulk. We show that the problem for the mean radius can be completely solved in our models, which include as particular cases those in the references above.