Five golden rules for superstring phenomenology

Abstract

Recent measurements of the values of gauge coupling constants as well as neutrino properties support the idea of a grand unified (GUT) description of particle physics at a large scale of $M_{GUT}\sim 10^{16}$ GeV. We discuss a strategy to incorporate this picture in the framework of superstring theory. In such a scheme successful predictions of GUTs can be realized while some of the more problematic aspects of grand unification might be avoided. The most promising models are expected in the framework of the heterotic $E_8\times E_8$ string theory.Comment: Based on talks given at the conference on ``String Phenomenology 2004, Ann Arbor, and ``Pascos04-NathFest Symposium'', Boston, August 200