Informal Phenomenology Seminar

We first highlight some of the (theoretical) shortcomings of the Standard Model, and then consider hints at physics beyond the electroweak scale. Grand Unification and theories in extra dimensions are motivated, and string orbifolds are introduced as ultraviolet completions of these theories. We present a general search strategy for MSSM-like models based on a local SO(10) Grand Unified Theory. The results of our search include 15 models with (i) 3 families of quarks and leptons, (ii) only vectorlike exotics that decouple along D- and F-flat directions, (iii) an exact R-parity, (iv) non-trivial Yukawa matrices, (v) mass hierarchies. [Based on arXiv:0708.2691]