Related papers: Are there minimal exceptional aGUTs from stable 5D…
It is often argued that in the class of non-supersymmetric SO(10) grand unified theories there is barely any room for reconciling the lower bound on the position of the GUT scale emerging from the proton decay searches and the lower limit…
In this paper we analyze the structure of supersymmetric vacua in compactifications of the heterotic string on certain manifolds with SU(3) structure. We first study the effective theories obtained from compactifications on half-flat…
We study moduli stabilisation in four-dimensional $N=1$ supergravity theories which originate from compactifications of the heterotic string on certain manifolds with $SU(3)$ structure. These theories have a non-trivial superpotential…
In the context of $\mathrm{E}_{6}$ Grand Unified Theories (GUTs), an intriguing possibility for symmetry breaking to the Standard Model (SM) group involves an intermediate stage characterized by either…
All five-dimensional non-abelian gauge theories have a $U(1)_I$ global symmetry associated with instantonic particles. We describe an obstruction to coupling $U(1)_I$ to a classical background gauge field that occurs whenever the theory has…
Within the context of traditional logarithmic grand unification at M_GUT = 10^(16) GeV, we show that it is nevertheless possible to observe certain GUT states such as X and Y gauge bosons at lower scales, perhaps even in the TeV range. We…
We discuss Kaluza-Klein (KK) decomposition in 5-dimensional (5D) field theories with orbifold compactification. Kinetic terms localized at orbifold fixed points, which are inevitably present in any realistic model, modify the standard KK…
We look for critical points with U(2) residual symmetry in 5-dimensional maximally supersymmetric gauged supergravity, by varying the embedding tensor, rather than directly minimizing the scalar potential. We recover all previously known…
We prove that it is impossible to construct a grand unified model, based on a simple gauge group, in four dimensions that leads to the exact MSSM, nor to a singlet extension, and possesses an unbroken R symmetry. This implies that no MSSM…
In the context of the standard SUSY GUT scenario, we present a detailed analysis of the softly broken finite supersymmetric grand unified theory. The model, albeit non-minimal, remains very rigid due to the requirement of finiteness. It is…
On Type IIA orientifolds with flux compactifications in supersymmetric AdS vacua, we for the first time construct SU(5) models with three anti-symmetric {\bf 10} representations and without symmetric {\bf 15} representations. We show that…
After a brief review of the motivations for grand unification, I discuss the main challenges facing realistic SUSY GUT model building. Achieving doublet-triplet splitting without fine--tuning is chief among them. Symmetry breaking should…
The Exceptional Supersymmetric Standard Model (E6SSM) is an E6 inspired model with an extra gauged U(1) symmetry, which solves the mu-problem in a similar way to the NMSSM but without the accompanying problems of singlet tadpoles or domain…
It is possible to construct models based on warped extra dimensions in which electroweak symmetry breaking takes place without the introduction of any Higgs fields. This breaking can occur through the judiciuous choice of boundary…
In Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) from orbifold and various string constructions the generic vector-like particles do not need to form complete SU(5) or SO(10) representations. To realize them concretely, we present orbifold SU(5) models,…
We consider stable minimal surfaces of genus 1 in Euclidean space and in Riemannian manifolds. Under the condition of covering stability (all finite covers are stable) we show that a genus 1 finite total curvature minimal surface in…
We construct three quasi-supersymmetric $G^3$ GUT models with $S_3$ symmetry and gauge coupling unification from intersecting D6-branes on Type IIA orientifolds. The Standard Model fermions and Higgs doublets can be embedded into the…
A new family of $D=4$ $\mathcal{N}=8$ gauged supergravities is introduced, consisting in a mixture of Scherk-Schwarz and dyonic CSO gaugings that involves the trombone scaling symmetry. A specific theory in this class is shown to admit…
I describe the main features of new intersecting D4- and D5-brane orbifold models that yield the non-supersymmetric standard model, up to vector-like matter and, in some cases, extra U(1) factors in the gauge group. There are six-stack…
Of the five exceptional groups, $\mathrm{E}_6$ is considered the most attractive for unification due to the following reasons: (i) it contains both $\mathrm{Spin} (10) \times \mathrm{U}(1)$ and $\mathrm{SU} (3) \times \mathrm{SU}(3) \times…