Spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking in nonminimal supersymmetric grand unified theories

Abstract

In supersymmetric grand unified theories with the unified group larger than SU(5), it is required that gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken down to the effective-low-energy group SU(3)_c*SU(2)_w*U(1) gamma without breaking supersymmetry. After studying some possible symmetry-breaking patterns which are realised by combinations of Higgs superfields in some lower-dimensional representations, the authors apply the results to several examples with the unified groups SU(6), SU(7) and SO(10).