Probing the Geometry of the Universe at the NLC

Abstract

The hierarchy problem in particle physics has recently been approached from a geometric point of view in different models. These approaches postulate the existence of extra dimensions with various geometric properties, to explain how the hierarchy between the apparent scale of gravity ${\bar M}_P \sim 10^{18}$ GeV and the weak scale $m_W \sim 100$ GeV can be generated. Generally, these models predict that the effects of gravity mediated interactions become strong at the weak scale. This fact makes the NLC a promising tool for testing such extra dimensional models.