Space-Time Compactification Induced By Lightlike Branes

The aim of the present paper is two-fold. First we describe the Lagrangian dynamics of a recently proposed new class of lightlike p-branes and their interactions with bulk space-time gravity and electromagnetism in a self-consistent manner. Next, we discuss the role of lightlike branes as natural candidates for wormhole "throats" and exemplify the latter by presenting an explicit construction of a new type of asymmetric wormhole solution where the lightlike brane connects a "right" universe with Reissner-Nordstroem geometry to a "left" Bertotti-Robinson universe with two compactified space dimensions.