Related papers: Naturalness versus stringy naturalness (with impli…
We study the possible phenomenology of a three-family Pati-Salam model constructed from intersecting D6-branes in Type IIA string theory on the T^6/(Z2 x Z2) orientifold with some desirable semi-realistic features. In the model, tree-level…
The question of naturalness is addressed in the context of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking models. Requiring that $M_Z$ arises naturally imposes upper limits on the right-handed selectron mass in these models that are stronger than in…
{\tenrm The possibility of detecting supersymmetric dark matter is examined within the framework of the minimal supergravity model (MSGM), where the $\tilde{Z}_{1}$ is the LSP for almost the entire parameter space. A brief discussion is…
Supersymmetric models with a strongly interacting superconformal hidden sector (HS) may drive soft SUSY breaking scalar masses, bilinear soft term B\mu and Higgs combinations m_{H_{u,d}}^2+\mu^2 to small values at some intermediate scale,…
I review the relations between mass scales in various string theories and in M-theory. I discuss physical motivations and possible consistent realizations of large volume compactifications and low string scale. Large longitudinal…
String theory predicts that the couplings of Nature descend from dynamical fields. All known string-motivated particle physics models also come with a wide range of possible extra sectors. It is common to posit that such moduli are frozen…
Negative mass brane-like objects known as orientifolds are crucial in the construction of all presently understood realistic string compactifications and I review in general the link between negative energy objects and the existence of a…
Four-dimensional strings with the standard model gauge group $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ give model-dependent predictions for the tree level weak mixing-angle. In the presence of an extra pseudo-anomalous gauged- ${U(1)}_X$, the value of…
Searches for supersymmetry (SUSY) often rely on a combination of hard physics objects (jets, leptons) along with large missing transverse energy to separate New Physics from Standard Model hard processes. We consider a class of…
String theory has been claimed to give rise to natural fuzzy dark matter candidates in the form of ultralight axions. In this paper we revisit this claim by a detailed study of how moduli stabilisation affects the masses and decay constants…
We review recent progress in embedding the supersymmetric standard model into string theory. We discuss how, with the incorporation of certain aspects of grand unification, a search strategy can be developed that allows to efficiently find…
The suggestion that there exist causally disconnected universes or sub-universes to explain the values of physical parameters such as the cosmological constant is discussed. A statistical model of the string landscape/topography is…
The breaking of $U(1)_R$ symmetry plays a crucial role in modeling the breaking of supersymmetry (SUSY). In the models that possess both SUSY preserving and SUSY breaking vacua, tube-like cosmic strings called R-tubes, whose surfaces are…
We study the naturalness properties of the $B-L$ Supersymmetric Standard Model (BLSSM) and compare them to those of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) at both low (i.e., Large Hadron Collider) energies and high (i.e.,…
Direct LHC bounds on colored SUSY particles now corner naturalness more than the measured value of the Higgs mass does. Bounds on the gluino are of particular importance, since it radiatively "sucks" up the stop and Higgs-up soft masses. As…
We review the prospect of obtaining tree-level de Sitter (dS) vacua and slow-roll inflation models in string compactifications. Restricting ourselves to the closed string sector and assuming the absence of NSNS-sources, we classify the…
Natural supersymmetry (SUSY) with light higgsinos is perhaps the most plausible of all weak scale SUSY models while a variety of motivations point to (right) tau sleptons as the lightest of all the sleptons. We examine a SUSY model line…
We study soft SUSY breaking terms in heterotic M-theory. We show that both weakly and strongly coupled heterotic string models lead to the same relations of soft SUSY breaking terms, $A=-M$ and $m^2 = M^2/3$, up to $O((\alpha T/S)^2)$.
We consider here the constraints in SUGRA models on the SUSY parameter space due to current experimental bounds on the light Higgs mass m_h, the b-> s gamma decay, the amount of neutralino cold dark matter Omega h^2, and the muon magnetic…
In order to significantly reduce the fine-tuning associated with the electroweak symmetry breaking in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), we consider not only the minimal gravity mediation effects but also the minimal gauge…