Scales of String Theory

Abstract

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 TeV type I scale and two large (near millimetric) transverse dimensions, creates conditions analogous to those of the energy desert and is thus naturally singled out. I comment on the puzzle of gauge coupling unification in this context.

Talk given at the Strings 99 Conference (Potsdam, July 1999), latex file (9 pages), uses ioplppt.sty

References in corpus (6)

• A Large Mass Hierarchy from a Small Extra Dimension
• An Alternative to Compactification
• Spacetime as a membrane in higher dimensions
• Gauge couplings in four-dimensional Type I string orbifolds
• The second string (phenomenology) revolution
• Mass scales, supersymmetry breaking and open strings

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Towards a Non-Supersymmetric String Phenomenology
• On exponential suppression of the cosmological constant in non-SUSY strings at two loops and beyond
• Testing theories that predict time variation of fundamental constants
• On interpolations from SUSY to non-SUSY strings and their properties
• The second string (phenomenology) revolution
• Time variation of the fine structure constant in the early universe and the Bekenstein model
• Realization of Power-Law Inflation & Variants via Variation of the Strong Coupling Constant
• On Inflation and Variation of the Strong Coupling Constant