Low-Scale SU(4)_W Unification

We embed the minimal left-right model SU(2)LSU(2)_R U(1){B-L} into an SU(4)W gauge group, and break the unified group via five-dimensional S^1/(Z_2Z_2) orbifolding. Leptons are fitted into SU(4)_W multiplets and located on a symmetry preserving O brane, while quarks are placed onto an O’ brane where the symmetry is broken. This approach predicts \sin^2\theta_W=0.25 for the weak mixing angle at tree level and leads to a rather low weakly (strongly) coupled unification scale of order 310^2 TeV (several TeV) with supersymmetry, or as low as several TeV in the non-supersymmetric case. Another symmetry breaking chain with the low-energy gauge group SU(2)L*U(1){3R}*U(1){B-L} can also give rise to a weak mixing angle \sin^2\theta_W=0.25 at tree level after gauge symmetry breaking by orbifolding. Such theories with low-scale unification have interesting phenomenological consequences.