Flipped SU(5): a Grand Unified Superstring Theory (GUST) Prototype

Abstract

In this Lecture we first review the basic properties that make flipped SU(5) a very economical and well motivated unified model, including some recent developments regarding the prediction for $α_s$ and new implications for proton decay. Then we sketch the derivation of flipped SU(5) from strings, stressing some new results concerning the cosmological constant, the stability of the no-scale mechanism, and a new mechanism for generating the ``LEP" scale $M_{\rm LEP}\sim10^{16}\GeV$ in string models. Finally we present a sample supersymmetry breaking scenario, where all sparticle masses depend on a single parameter, and discuss the experimental signatures at LEP and the Tevatron. This scenario also predicts the top-quark mass to be close to 175 GeV. (Lecture presented by D.~V.~Nanopoulos at the 33rd International School of Subnuclear Physics ``Vacuum and vacua: the physics of nothing", Erice, July 2-10, 1995.)