NEW DIMENSIONS AT A MILLIMETER TO A FERMI AND SUPERSTRINGS AT A TEV

Recently, a new framework for solving the hierarchy problem has been p roposed which does not rely on low energy supersymmetry or technicolor . The gravitational and gauge interactions unite at the electroweak sc ale, and the observed weakness of gravity at long distances is due the existence of large new spatial dimensions. In this letter, we show th at this framework can be embedded in string theory. These models have a perturbative description in the context of type I string theory. The gravitational sector consists of closed strings propagating in the hi gher-dimensional bulk, while ordinary matter consists of open strings living on D3-branes. This scenario raises the exciting possibility tha t the LHC and NLC will experimentally study ordinary aspects of string physics such as the production of narrow Regge-excitations of all sta ndard model particles, as well more exotic phenomena involving strong gravity such as the production of black holes. The new dimensions can be probed by events with large missing energy carried off by gravitons escaping into the bulk. We finally discuss some important issues of m odel building, such as proton stability, gauge coupling unification an d supersymmetry breaking. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.