In this paper we study dynamical supersymmetry breaking in absence of gravity with the matter content of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. The hidden sector of the theory is a strongly coupled gauge theory, realized in terms of microscopic variables which condensate to form mesons. The supersymmetry breaking scalar potential combines F, D terms with instanton generated interactions in the Higgs-mesons sector. We show that for a large region in parameter space the vacuum breaks in addition to supersymmetry also electroweak gauge symmetry. We furthermore present local D-brane configurations that realize these supersymmetry breaking patterns.
We study the non-perturbative dynamics of an unoriented Z_5-quiver theory of GUT kind with gauge group U(5) and chiral matter. At strong coupling the non-perturbative dynamics is described in terms of set of baryon/meson variables satisfying a quantum deformed constraint. We compute the effective superpotential of the theory and show that it admits a line of supersymmetric vacua and a phase where supersymmetry is dynamically broken via gaugino condensation.
We analyze proton decay via dimension six operators in certain GUT-like models derived from Type IIA orientifolds with $D6$-branes. The amplitude is parametrically enhanced by a factor of $alpha_{GUT}^{-1/3}$ relative to the coresponding result in four-dimensional GUTs. Nonetheless, even assuming a plausible enhancement from the threshold corrections, we find little overall enhancement of the proton decay rate from dimension six operators, so that the predicted lifetime from this mechanism remains close to $10^{36}$ years.
We show that contrary to first expectations realistic three generation supersymmetric intersecting brane world models give rise to phenomenologically interesting predictions about gauge coupling unification. Assuming the most economical way of realizing the matter content of the MSSM via intersecting branes we obtain a model independent relation among the three gauge coupling constants at the string scale. In order to correctly reproduce the experimentally known values of sin^2[theta_W(M_z)] and alpha_s(M_z) this relation leads to natural gauge coupling unification at a string scale close to the standard GUT scale 2 x 10^16 GeV. Additional vector-like matter can push the unification scale up to the Planck scale.
Brane supersymmetry breaking is a peculiar phenomenon that can occur in perturbative orientifold vacua. It results from the simultaneous presence, in the vacuum, of non-mutually BPS sets of BPS branes and orientifolds, which leave behind a net tension and thus a runaway potential, but no tachyons. In the simplest ten-dimensional realization, the low-lying modes combine the closed sector of type-I supergravity with an open sector including USp(32) gauge bosons, fermions in the antisymmetric 495 and an additional singlet playing the role of a goldstino. We review some properties of this system and of other non-tachyonic models in ten dimensions with broken supersymmetry, and we illustrate some puzzles that their very existence raises, together with some applications that they have stimulated.