M theory solution to the hierarchy problem

An old idea for explaining the hierarchy is strong gauge dynamics. We show that such dynamics also stabilizes the moduli in M theory compactifications on manifolds of G2 holonomy without fluxes. This gives stable vacua with softly broken supersymmetry, grand unification, and a distinctive spectrum of TeV and sub-TeV sparticle masses.     

Kaluza-Klein states versus winding states: can both be above the string scale?

Closed strings in extra compactified dimensions give rise to both Kaluza-Klein states and winding states. Since the masses of these states play a reciprocal role, it is often believed that either the lightest Kaluza-Klein states or the lightest winding states must be at or below the string scale. In this Letter, we demonstrate the contrary, showing that there exist toroidal compactifications for which all Kaluza-Klein states as well as all winding states are heavier than the string scale. Within the context of low-scale string theories, this implies that it may be possible to cross the string scale without detecting any states associated with spacetime compactification.     

Realistic Type IIB supersymmetric Minkowski flux vacua

We show that there exist supersymmetric Minkowski vacua on Type IIB toroidal orientifold with general flux compactifications where the RR tadpole cancellation conditions can be relaxed elegantly. Then we present a realistic Pati–Salam like model. At the string scale, the gauge symmetry can be broken down to the Standard Model (SM) gauge symmetry, the gauge coupling unification can be achieved naturally, and all the extra chiral exotic particles can be decoupled so that we have the supersymmetric SMs with/without SM singlet(s) below the string scale. The observed SM fermion masses and mixings can also be obtained. In addition, the unified gauge coupling, the dilaton, the complex structure moduli, the real parts of the Kähler moduli and the sum of the imaginary parts of the Kähler moduli can be determined as functions of the four-dimensional dilaton and fluxes, and can be estimated as well.     

Flat directions,string compactification and three generation models

We show how identification of absolutely flat directions allows the construction of a new class of compactified string theories with reduced gauge symmetry that may or may not be continuously connected to the original theory. We use this technique to construct a class of three generation models with just the Standard Model gauge group after compactification. We discuss the low-energy symmetries necessary for a phenomenologically viable low-energy model and construct an example in which these symmetries are identified with string symmetries which remain unbroken down to the supersymmetry breaking scale. Remarkably the same symmetry responsible for stabilising the nucleon is also responsible for ensuring one and only one pair of Higgs doublets is kept light. We show how the string symmetries also lead to textures in the quark and lepton mass matrices which can explain the hierarchy of fermion masses and mixing angles.     

Grand unification near the Kaluza-Klein scale

The supersymmetric grand unification scale is close to the calculable size ≈10⁻¹⁷ GeV⁻¹ of the extra space dimensions of generalized Kaluza-Klein theory. Grand unification may therefore be a high-dimensional phenomenon with consequences also for cosmology.     

Kaluza-Klein cosmologies

In generalized Kaluza-Klein theories the scale set by the size of the extra space-dimensions is close to the grand unification scale of supersymmetric GUT's with minimal number of Higgs supermultiplets. In view of this observation, we explore cosmologies in which the “effective” dimensionality of space depends on time. Such cosmologies are studied in higher-dimensional Jordan-Brans-Dicke theories, and in 10- and 11-dimensional supergravity. The preferential expansion of three space-like dimensions is noted in the latter theory. Cosmology in pure higher-dimensional Einstein theory, where there is no preferential expansion of three space-like dimensions, has been discussed by Chodos and Detweiler.     

Black holes in many dimensions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider: testing critical string theory

We consider black hole production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in a generic scenario with many extra dimensions where the standard model fields are confined to a brane. With approximately 20 dimensions the hierarchy problem is shown to be naturally solved without the need for large compactification radii. We find that in such a scenario the properties of black holes can be used to determine the number of extra dimensions, . In particular, we demonstrate that measurements of the decay distributions of such black holes at the LHC can determine if is significantly larger than 6 or 7 with high confidence and thus can probe one of the critical properties of string theory compactifications.     

The Large-N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories and Supergravity

We show that the large-N limits of certainconformal field theories in various dimensions includein their Hilbert space a sector describing supergravityon the product of anti-de Sitter spacetimes, spheres, and other compact manifolds. This is shown bytaking some branes in the full M/string theory and thentaking a low-energy limit where the field theory on thebrane decouples from the bulk. We observe that, in this limit, we can still trust thenear-horizon geometry for large N. The enhancedsupersymmetries of the near-horizon geometry correspondto the extra supersymmetry generators present in thesuperconformal group (as opposed to just the super-Poincaregroup). The 't Hooft limit of 3 + 1 N = 4 super-Yang–Mills at the conformal pointis shown to contain strings: they are IIB strings. Weconjecture that compactifications of M/string theory on various anti-de Sitterspacetimes is dual to various conformal field theories.This leads to a new proposal for a definition ofM-theory which could be extended to include fivenoncompact dimensions.     

New principles for string/membrane unification

The target space theory of the N = (2,1) heterotic string may be interpreted as a theory of gravity coupled to matter in either 1 + 1 or 2 + 1 dimensions. Among the target space theories in 1 + 1 dimensions are the bosonic, type II, and heterotic string world-sheet field theories in a physical gauge. The (2 + 1)-dimensional version describes a consistent quantum theory of supermembranes in 10 + 1 dimensions. The unifying framework for all of these vacua is a theory of (2 + 2)-dimensional self-dual geometries embedded in 10 + 2 dimensions. There are also indications that the N = (2,1) string describes the strong-coupling dynamics of compactifications of critical string theories to two dimensions, and may lead to insights about the fundamental degrees of freedom of the theory.     

Unification and hierarchy from 5D anti-de Sitter space

We show that perturbative high scale unification and a solution to the hierarchy problem are possible with extra dimensions in the context of the warped geometry of 5D anti-de Sitter space ( AdS(5)). This is possible because the couplings for bulk gauge bosons run logarithmically below the AdS(5) curvature scale. The calculation is done in five dimensions, rather than in the effective theory, which is strongly coupled above the TeV scale.     

Fermions and parity violation in dimensional reduction schemes

Dimensional reduction, previously applied to Yang-Mills theories, is extended to gauge theories with spinor fields. It is shown that a fairly realistic model in Minkowski space can be obtained from the simplest initial lagrangian, defined in a space-time with extra, compact dimensions. Left-right asymmetry in the fermion sector in four dimensions is possible, and its occurrence is related to a non-vanishing Atiyah-Singer index.     

Low-energy models with two supersymmetries

Realistic models of low-energy physics with two supersymmetries are constructed. Several mechanisms for providing large mirror fermion masses are given in models with gauge groups SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1) and SU(3) × SU(4) × U(1). It is found that the supersymmetry breaking scale must be significantly larger than the W-boson mass. Although none of the models is fully natural, each predicts that mirror fermions should soon be discovered. While the ordinary and mirror squarks and sleptons tend to be very heavy, some gauginos or mirror gauginos are probably light. The models offer prospects for eventual unification into finite grand unified theories.     

Supersymmetry breaking,open strings and M-theory

We study supersymmetry breaking by Scherk-Schwarz compactifications in type I string theory. While in the gravitational sector all mass splittings are proportional to a (large) compactification radius, supersymmetry remains unbroken for the massless excitations of D-branes orthogonal to the large dimension. In this sector, supersymmetry breaking can then be mediated by gravitational interactions alone, that are expected to be suppressed by powers of the Planck mass. The mechanism is non-perturbative from the heterotic viewpoint and requires a compactification radius at intermediate energies of order 10¹²−10¹⁴ GeV This can also explain the value of Newton's constant if the string scale is close to the unification scale, of order 10¹⁶ GeV.     

Minimal standard heterotic string models

Three generation heterotic string vacua in the free fermionic formulation gave rise to models with solely the MSSM states in the observable standard model charged sector. The relation of these models to Z₂×Z₂ orbifold compactifications dictates that they produce three pairs of untwisted Higgs multiplets. The reduction to one pair relies on the analysis of supersymmetric flat directions, which give a superheavy mass to the dispensable Higgs states. We explore the removal of the extra Higgs representations by using the free fermion boundary conditions, and hence we work directly at the string level, rather than in the effective low energy field theory. We present a general mechanism that achieves this reduction by using asymmetric boundary conditions between the left- and right-moving internal fermions. We incorporate this mechanism in explicit string models containing three twisted generations and a single untwisted Higgs doublet pair. We further demonstrate that an additional effect of the asymmetric boundary conditions is to substantially reduce the supersymmetric moduli space.     

Physics with large extra dimensions

The recent understanding of string theory opens the possibility that the string scale can be as low as a few TeV. The apparent weakness of gravitational interactions can then be accounted by the existence of large internal dimensions, in the sub-millimeter region. Furthermore, our world must be confined to live on a brane transverse to these large dimensions, with which it interacts only gravitationally. In my lecture, I describe briefly this scenario which gives a new theoretical framework for solving the gauge hierarchy problem and the unification of all interactions. I also discuss a minimal embedding of the standard model, gauge coupling unification and proton stability. On leave from: Centre de Physique Théorique, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, Cedex, France.     

Event-Symmetry for Superstrings

I apply the principle of event-symmetry tosimple string models and discuss how these lead to theconviction that multiple quantization is linked todimension. It may be that string theory has to beformulated in the absence of space-time, which will thenemerge as a derived property of the dynamics. Anotherinterpretation of the event-symmetric approach whichembodies this is that instantons are fundamental. Just as solitons may be dual to fundamentalparticles, instantons may be dual to space-time events.Event-symmetry is then dual to instanton statistics. Inthat case a unification between particle statistics and gauge symmetry follows on naturally fromthe principle of event-symmetry. I build algebras whichrepresent symmetries of superstring theories extendingevent-symmetry, but which are also isomorphic to an algebra of creation and annihilationoperators for strings of fermionic partons.     

Local grand unification in the heterotic landscape

We consider the possibility that the unification of the electroweak interactions and the strong force arises from string theory, at energies significantly lower than the string scale. As a tool, an effective grand unified field theory in six dimensions is derived from an anisotropic orbifold compactification of the heterotic string. It is explicitly shown that all anomalies cancel in the model, though anomalous Abelian gauge symmetries are present locally at the boundary singularities. In the supersymmetric vacuum additional interactions arise from higher‐dimensional operators. We develop methods that relate the couplings of the effective theory to the location of the vacuum, and find that unbroken discrete symmetries play an important role for the phenomenology of orbifold models. An efficient algorithm for the calculation of the superpotential to arbitrary order is developed, based on symmetry arguments. We furthermore present a correspondence between bulk fields of the orbifold model in six dimensions, and the moduli fields that arise from compactifying four internal dimensions on a manifold with non‐trivial gauge background.     

Towards a realistic gauge hierarchy

We realize Witten's scenario for a solution to the gauge hierarchy problem in a supersymmetric SU(7) gauge theory. Unwanted particles are made superheavy by interlocking interactions between two non-singlet fields, such that the strong interaction may remain asymptotically free up to the grand unification scale.     

Inflation,large scale structure and particle physics

We review experimental and theoretical developments in inflation and its application to structure formation, including the curvaton idea. We then discuss a particle physics model of supersymmetric hybrid inflation at the intermediate scale in which the Higgs scalar field is responsible for large scale structure, show how such a theory is completely natural in the framework extra dimensions with an intermediate string scale.     

Neutrino properties from maximally-predictive GUT models and the structure of the heavy Majorana sector

Starting from a complete set of possible parametrisations of the quark-mass matrices that have the maximum number of texture zeros at the grand unification scale, and the Georgi-Jarlskog mass relations, we classify the neutrino spectra with respect to the unknown structure of the heavy Majorana sector. The results can be casted into a small number of phenomenologically distinct classes of neutrino spectra, characterised by universal mass-hierarchy and oscillation patterns. One finds that the neutrino masses reflect the natural hierarchy among the three generations and obey the quadratic seesaw, for most GUT models that contain a rather “unsophisticated” Majorana sector. A scenario withv _τ as the missing hot dark matter component andv _e ?v _µ oscillations accounting for the solar neutrino deficit comes naturally out of this type of models and is very close to the experimental limit of confirmation or exclusion. In contrast, in the presence of a strong hierarchy of heavy scales or/and some extra symmetries in the Majorana mass matrix, this natural hierarchy gets distorted or even reversed. This fact can become a link between searches for neutrino oscillations and searches for discrete symmetries close to the Planck scale.