Matter unification in warped supersymmetric image Original Research Article

We construct models of warped unification with a bulk image gauge symmetry and boundary conditions that preserve the image Pati–Salam gauge group (422). In the dual 4D description, these models are 422 gauge theories in which the apparent unification of gauge couplings in the minimal supersymmetric standard model is explained as a consequence of strong coupling in the ultraviolet. The weakness of the gauge couplings at low energies is ensured in this 4D picture by asymptotically non-free contributions from the conformal sector, which are universal due to an approximate image global symmetry. The 422 gauge symmetry is broken to the standard model group by a simple set of Higgs fields. An advantage of this setup relative to image models of warped unification is that matter is automatically required to fill out representations of 422, providing an elegant understanding of the quantum numbers of the standard-model quarks and leptons. The models also naturally incorporate the see-saw mechanism for neutrino masses and bottom-tau unification. Finally, they predict a rich spectrum of exotic particles near the TeV scale, including states with different quantum numbers than those that appear in image models.