SOFT SCALAR-MASS SUM-RULE IN GAUGE-YUKAWA UNIFIED MODELS AND ITS SUPERSTRING INTERPRETATION

It is shown that a certain sum rule for soft supersymmetry-breaking sc alar masses, which has been recently found in a certain class of super string models, is universal for gauge-Yukawa unified models. To explai n this coincidence, we argue that the low-energy remnant of the target -space duality invariance in the effective supergravity of compactifie d superstrings can be identified with the (broken) scale invariance in gauge-Yukawa unified models, and that gauge-Yukawa unification which is indispensable for the sum rule to be satisfied follows from the mat ching of anomalies. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.