Gauge unification in six dimensions

We study the breaking of a supersymmetric SO(10) GUT in 6 dimensions by orbifold compactification. In 4 dimensions we obtain a N=1 supersymmetric theory with the standard model gauge group enlarged by an additional U(1) symmetry. The 4-dimensional gauge symmetry is obtained as intersection of the Pati–Salam and the Georgi–Glashow subgroups of SO(10), which appear as unbroken subgroups in the two 5-dimensional subspaces, respectively. The doublet–triplet splitting arises as in the recently discussed SU(5) GUTs in 5 dimensions.