Eur. Phys. J. C (2010) 67: 489-498
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-010-1298-2

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Gauge coupling flux thresholds, exotic matter and the unification scale in F-SU(5) GUT

¹ Department of Physics, CERN Theory Division, 1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland
² Theoretical Physics Division, Ioannina University, 45110, Ioannina, Greece
³ Physics Department, National Technical University, 157 73, Athens, Greece

^* e-mail: ntrac@central.ntua.gr

Received: 23 December 2009
Revised: 3 March 2010
Published online: 31 March 2010

Abstract

We explore the gauge coupling relations and the unification scale in F-theory SU(5) GUT broken down to the Standard Model by an internal U(1) _Y gauge flux. We consider variants with exotic matter representations which may appear in these constructions and investigate their rôle in the effective field theory model. We make a detailed investigation on the conditions imposed on the extraneous matter to raise the unification scale and make the color triplets heavy in order to avoid fast proton decay. We also discuss in brief the implications on the gaugino masses.