Brane Dynamics, the Polytropic Gas and Conformal Bulk Fields

We consider in the Randall-Sundrum scenario the dynamics of a spherically symmetric 3-brane world when matter fields exist in the bulk. We determine exact 5-dimensional solutions which localize gravity near the brane and describe the dynamics of homogeneous polytropic matter on the brane. We show that these geometries are associated with a well defined conformal class of bulk matter fields. We analyze the effective polytropic dynamics on the brane identifying conditions which define it as singular or as globally regular.