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arXiv · hep-ph/9810535

Strings at the Intermediate Scale, or is the Fermi Scale Dual to the Planck Scale?

C. P. Burgess·L. E. Ibanez·F. Quevedo
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Abstract

We show that if the string scale is identifed with the intermediate scale, $M_s=\sqrt{M_W M_{Planck}} \sim 10^{11}$ GeV, then the notorious hierarchy, $M_W/M_{Planck} \sim 10^{-16}$, can be explained using only $M_c/M_s \sim 0.01 \sim α_{GUT} $ as small input parameters, where $M_c$ is the compactification scale. This is possible for weakly-coupled Type-I open-string vacua if the observed world is assumed to live in an N=1 supersymmetric 3-brane sector coupled to a separate, hidden, 3-brane world which breaks supersymmetry, because for such a model $M_W/M_{Planck} = 1/2 α_{GUT}^2 (M_c/M_s)^6$. We discuss some of the phenomenological issues presented by such an intermediate-scale string, showing that its benefits include: (i) the possibility of logarithmic gauge-coupling unification of the SM couplings at $M_s$; (ii) a natural axionic solution to the strong-CP problem with a phenomenologically-acceptable Peccei-Quinn scale; (iii) experimentally-interesting neutrino masses, and more.

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C. P. Burgess, L. E. Ibanez, F. Quevedo. 1998-10-29. Strings at the Intermediate Scale, or is the Fermi Scale Dual to the Planck Scale?. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0370-2693(99)00006-4

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