  This work sets up a general theoretical framework to study stability of
models with a warped extra dimension where N scalar fields couple minimally to
gravity. Our analysis encompasses Randall-Sundrum models with branes and bulk
scalars, and general domain-wall models. We derive the Schrodinger equation
governing the spin-0 spectrum of perturbations of such a system. This result is
specialized to potentials generated using fake supergravity, and we show that
models without branes are free of tachyonic modes. Turning to the existence of
zero modes, we prove a criterion which relates the number of normalizable zero
modes to the parities of the scalar fields. Constructions with definite parity
and only odd scalars are shown to be free of zero modes and are hence
perturbatively stable. We give two explicit examples of domain-wall models with
a soft wall, one which admits a zero mode and one which does not. The latter is
an example of a model that stabilizes a compact extra dimension using only bulk
scalars and does not require dynamical branes.
