We review the possibility that the Supersymmetric Standard Model arises from orbifold constructions of the E8×E8 Heterotic Superstring, and the phenomenological properties that such a model should have. In particular, trying to solve the discrepancy between the unification scale predicted by the Heterotic Superstring (≈g GUT × 5.27 × 1017 GeV ) and the value deduced from LEP experiments (≈2 × 1016 GeV ), we will predict the presence at low energies of three families of Higgses and vector-like colour triplets. Our approach relies on the Fayet–Iliopoulos breaking, and this is also a crucial ingredient, together with having three Higgs families, to obtain in these models an interesting pattern of fermion masses and mixing angles at the renormalizable level. Namely, after the gauge breaking some physical particles appear combined with other states, and the Yukawa couplings are modified in a well-controlled way. On the other hand, dangerous flavour-changing neutral currents may appear when fermions of a given charge receive their mass through couplings with several Higgs doublets. We will address this potential problem, finding that viable scenarios can be obtained for a reasonable light Higgs spectrum.
Induced Light-Quark Yukawa Couplings as a Probe of Low-Energy Dynamics in QCD