Related papers: From strings to the MSSM
These lectures present some topics of string phenomenology and contain two parts. In the first part, I review the possibility of lowering the string scale in the TeV region, that provides a theoretical framework for solving the mass…
We investigate the connections between four-dimensional, N=2 M-theory vacua constructed as orbifolds of type II, heterotic, and type I strings. All these models have the same massless spectrum, which contains an equal number of vector…
An overview is given of the way in which the unification program of particle physics has evolved into the proposal of superstring theory as a prime candidate for unifying quantum gravity with the other forces and particles of nature. A key…
We consider two questions in string ``phenomenology.'' First, are there any generic string predictions? Second, are there any general lessons which string theory suggests for thinking about low energy models, particularly in the framework…
In this dissertation, the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is studied as a low-energy theory stemming from the $SU(5)$ Grand Unified Theory (GUT). We investigate the possibility of satisfying the minimal $SU(5)$ boundary…
I argue that the ten dimensional non--supersymmetric tachyonic superstrings may serve as good starting points for the construction of viable phenomenological vacua. Thus, enlarging the space of possible solutions that may address some of…
We formulate matrix string models on a class of exact string backgrounds with non constant RR-flux parameterized by a holomorphic prepotential function and with manifest (2,2) supersymmetry. This lifts these string theories to M-theory…
We derive the universal threshold corrections in heterotic string theory including a continuous Wilson line. Unification of gauge and gravitational couplings is shown to be possible even within perturbative string theory. The relative…
We address the influence of quantum corrections to neutrino masses and mixings and discuss the possibilities to completely generate the flavor mixing irrespective of any tree-level flavor model. Furthermore, we describe a new class of vacua…
We review some of the recent developments in the construction of $W$-string theories. These are generalisations of ordinary strings in which the two-dimensional ``worldsheet'' theory, instead of being a gauging of the Virasoro algebra, is a…
We review recent progress in constructing realistic brane models from type I string vacua. Explicit models with three families of the standard model gauge group and its left-right generalizations are presented with supersymmetry broken at…
We formulate matrix models for strings in ten dimensional pp-wave backgrounds and for particles in eleven dimensional ones. This is done by first characterizing the deformations of ten dimensional {\cal N}=1 SYM which are induced by a…
An analysis of a special class of type II string theory compactifications is presented. We focus on recent work in one particular orientifold background of intersecting brane models and the resulting four dimensional gauge group and matter…
Recent developemnts in string compactifications in the presence of antisymmetric field backgrounds suggest a new simple and predictive structure for soft terms in the MSSM depending only on two parameters. They give rise to a positive…
The solution to the supersymmetric FCNC problem may not have a simple field theory interpretation. Here I advocate a possibility based on string selection rules. The requirement of non--trivial Yukawa structures restricts the form of the…
This paper summarizes several developments in string-derived (Minimal Supersymmetric) Standard Models. Part one reviews the first string model containing solely the three generations of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and a single…
The Pentagon Model is an explicit supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model, which involves a new strongly-interacting SU(5) gauge theory at TeV-scale energies. We discuss embeddings of the Pentagon Model into string theory,…
We study a class of supersymmetric Froggatt-Nielsen (FN) models with multiple U(1) symmetries and Standard Model (SM) singlets inspired by heterotic string compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds. The string-theoretic origin imposes a…
To increase the predictivity of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), one needs to go to an underlying, more fundamental theory, where at least some of the many MSSM parameters can be determined by symmetries or by dynamics.…
It is shown that a certain sum rule for soft supersymmetry-breaking scalar masses, which has been recently found in a certain class of superstring models, is universal for gauge-Yukawa unified models. To explain this coincidence, we argue…