We consider localization of gravity on thick branes with a non trivial structure. Double walls that generalize the thick Randall-Sundrum solution, and asymmetric walls that arise from a Z_2-symmetric scalar potential, are considered. We present a new asymmetric solution: a thick brane interpolating between two AdS_5 spacetimes with different cosmological constants, which can be derived from a ``fake supergravity'' superpotential, and show that it is possible to confine gravity on such branes.Comment: Final version, minor changes, references adde

For Majorana neutrino masses the lowest dimensional operator possible is the Weinberg operator at d = 5. Here we discuss the possibility that neutrino masses originate from higher dimensional operators. Specifically, we consider all tree-level decompositions of the d = 9, d = 11 and d = 13 neutrino mass operators. With renormalizable interactions only, we find 18 topologies and 66 diagrams for d = 9, and 92 topologies plus 504 diagrams at the d = 11 level. At d = 13 there are already 576 topologies and 4199 diagrams. However, among all these there are only very few genuine neutrino mass models: At d = (9, 11, 13) we find only (2,2,2) genuine diagrams and a total of (2,2,6) models. Here, a model is considered genuine at level d if it automatically forbids lower order neutrino masses without the use of additional symmetries. We also briefly discuss how neutrino masses and angles can be easily fitted in these high-dimensional models.

We show that the effective field equations for a recently formulated polynomial affine model of gravity, in the sector of a torsion-free connection, accept general Einstein manifolds-with or without cosmological constant-as solutions. Moreover, the effective field equations are partially those obtained from a gravitational Yang-Mills theory known as Stephenson-Kilmister-Yang theory. Additionally, we find a generalization of a minimally coupled massless scalar field in General Relativity within a "minimally" coupled scalar field in this affine model. Finally, we present a brief analysis of the propagators of the gravitational theory, and count the degrees of freedom. For completeness we prove that a Birkhoff-like theorem is valid for the analyzed sector.