Superstrings:The View from Below

Abstract

We review the Standard Model in a form conducive to formulating its possible short distance extensions. This depends on the value of the Higgs mass, the only unknown parameter of the model. We suggest methods to reproduce many of the small numbers in the model in terms of scale ratios, applying see-saw like ideas to the breaking of chiral symmetries. We then investigate how the $N=1$ Standard Model extrapolated to or near the Planck scale can fit superstring models, emphasizing the use of some non-renormalizable operators generic to superstrings.