Gauge coupling unification with extra dimensions and gravitational scale effects

Abstract

We study gauge coupling unification in the presence of extra dimensions compactified at a few TeV. Achieving unification requires a large number of gauge boson Kaluza–Klein excitations lighter than the string scale, such that the higher-dimensional gauge couplings are O(1) in string scale units. Corrections to the gauge couplings from two or more loops are about 10% or larger, hence string (or M) theory is generally expected to be strongly coupled in ∼TeV-scale extra-dimensional scenarios. Higher-dimensional operators induced by quantum gravitational effects can shift the gauge couplings by a few percent. These effects are sufficiently large that even the minimal Standard Model, or the MSSM, allow unification at a scale in the ∼TeV range. The strongly coupled unified theory may induce dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking.