String Compactifications, Supersymmetry Breaking and Hierarchy Problems

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A broad program of research in string theory, the candidate theory of allthe basic forces of nature, will be undertaken. The focus will be onconstructing string models which naturally accommodate large hierarchiesof scales. This is motivated by the observed but mysterious discrepancybetween the spatial scale of the weak nuclear force (which is roughly thesize of the nucleus) and the scale at which the gravitational forcebecomes strong (which is a much shorter distance than nuclear sizes). This is an important problem because understanding how and why these twovery disparate scales occur in nature may be a key to uncovering the nextlayer of structure of the elementary particles.