Related papers: Aspects of String unification
The string landscape suggests that the supersymmetry breaking scale can be high, and then the simplest low energy effective theory is the Standard Model (SM). We show that gauge coupling unification can be achieved at about 10^{16-17} GeV…
I review the arguments in favor of/against the traditional hypothesis that the Planck, string and compactification scales are all within a couple of orders of magnitude from each other. I explain how the extreme brane-world scenario, with…
In this letter we consider the consequences for the LHC of light vector-like exotica with fractional electric charge. It is shown that such states are found in orbifold constructions of the heterotic string. Moreover, these exotica are…
We study the low energy evolution of coupling constants of the standard model and show that gauge coupling unification can be achieved at the electroweak scale with a suitable normalization. We choose the grand unification group to be the…
With our current level of understanding, the problem of making string theory predictions is not one of "solving" the theory, but rather of trying to determine whether there are any generic expectations. Within this context, we discuss what…
Precision gauge coupling unification is one of the primary quantitative successes of low energy or split supersymmetry. Preserving this success puts severe restrictions on possible matter and gauge sectors that might appear at…
We consider the phenomenological consequences of a hidden Higgs sector extending the Standard Model (SM), in which the matter content are uncharged under the SM gauge groups. We consider a simple case where the hidden sector is gauged under…
We look for the minimal particle content which is necessary to add to the standard model in order to have a complete unification of gauge couplings and gravity at the weakly coupled heterotic string scale. Using the current precision…
We study the path from the string scale physics to the low-energy physics in the $SU(6) \times SU(2)_R$ string-inspired model with the flavor symmetry ${\bf Z}_M \times {\bf Z}_N \times \tilde{D}_4$. The flavor symmetry controls the mass…
The most promising MSSM candidates of the heterotic string reveal some distinctive properties. These include gauge-top unification, a specific solution to the mu-problem and mirage pattern for the gaugino masses. The location of the top-…
Unification of the gauge couplings would imply that time variations of the fine structure constant are accompanied by calculable and very significant time variations in the QCD scale parameter $\Lambda_{QCD}$. Since $\Lambda_{QCD}$ is the…
Standard (level one) heterotic string models with standard model gauge group predict the unification of $SU(3)$ and $SU(2)$ gauge couplings whereas the $U(1)$ factor is unified modulo an unknown normalization factor $k_1$. On the other hand…
Using the current precision electroweak data, we look for the minimal particle content which is necessary to add to the standard model in order to have a complete unification of gauge couplings and gravity at the weakly coupled heterotic…
Following the suggestion of Bachas, Fabre and Yanagida (BFY), we analyze the gauge coupling unification at the two-loop order, in a supersymmetric scenario where scalars belonging to the adjoint representations contribute to the evolution…
We investigate high and low energy implications of a gauge dual description of the Standard Model. The high energy electric theory features gauge dynamics involving only fermionic matter fields, while the low energy magnetic description…
This Ph.D. thesis collects results obtained investigating two different aspects of modern unifying theories. In the first part I summarized results achieved investigating simplicial aspects of string dualities. Exploiting Boundary Conformal…
In this letter, we study the implications of precise gauge coupling unification on supersymmetric particle masses. We argue that precise unification favors the superpartner masses that are in the range of several TeV and well beyond. We…
We investigate gauge coupling unification at 2-loops for theories with 5 extra vectorlike SU(5) fundamentals added to the MSSM. This is a borderline case where unification is only predicted in certain regions of parameter space. We…
We present a concise survey of the running of gauge couplings in realistic models of gauge-Higgs grand unification in a slice of AdS$_5$ space and investigate their potential unification. Besides unifying the gauge groups of the Standard…
We calculate the weak scale MSSM spectrum starting from a heterotic string theory compactified on an anisotropic orbifold. Supersymmetry breaking is mediated by vector-like exotics that arise naturally in heterotic string theories. The…