String unification at intermediate energies: phenomenological viability and implications

Motivated by the fact that the string scale can be many orders of magnitude lower than the Planck mass, we investigate the required modifications in the MSSM β-functions in order to achieve intermediate (1010–13 GeV) scale unification, keeping the traditional logarithmic running of the gauge couplings. We present examples of string unified models with the required extra matter for such a unification while we also check whether other MSSM properties (such as radiative symmetry breaking) are still applicable.