C-field cosmological model in higher dimensions
Hoyle and Narlikar's $C$-field cosmology is extended in the framework of higher dimensional spacetime and a class of exact solutions is obtained. Adjusting the arbitrary constants of integration one can show that our model is amenable to the desirable property of dimensional reduction so that the universe ends up in an effective 4D one.Further with matter creation from the $C$-field the mass density steadies with time and the usual bigbang singularity is avoided. An alternative mechanism is also suggested which seems to provide matter creation in the 4D spacetime although total matter in the 5D world remains conserved. Quintessence phenomenon and energy conditions are also discussed and it is found that in line with the physical requirements our model admits a solution with a decelerating phase in the early era followed by an accelerated expansion later. Moreover, as the contribution from the $C$-field is made negligible a class of our solutions reduces to the previously known higher dimensional models in the framework of Einstein's theory.