ABSTRACT
Beyond the Desert 1999: Accelerator, Non-Accelerator and Space Approaches into the Next Millennium 385
Physikalisches Institut, Universitat Bonn, Nussallee 12, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
Abstract. The low energy effective action of string theory leads to examples of supersymmetric generalizations of the SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) standard model of strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions. The mechanism of breakdown of supersymmetry induces soft breaking terms that determine the phenomenological implications of such a theory. Recent attempts to derive such models are based on the so-called heterotic M-theory that sheds light on some of the problems in earlier investigations, most notably the question of unification of gauge coupling constants and the size of soft gaugino masses. The latter determine the mass of the lightest supersymmetric partners that are prime candidates for the dark matter in the universe.
