We propose a new higher-dimensional mechanism for solving the hierarchy problem. The weak scale is generated from a large scale of order the Planck scale through an exponential hierarchy. However, this exponential arises not from gauge interactions but from the background metric (which is a slice of AdS 5 spacetime). This mechanism relies on the existence of only a single additional dimension. We demonstrate a simple explicit example of this mechanism with two three-branes, one of which contains the Standard Model fields. The experimental consequences of this scenario are new and dramatic. There are fundamental spin-2 excitations with mass of weak scale order, which are coupled with weak scale as opposed to gravitational strength to the standard model particles. The phenomenology of these models is quite distinct from that of large extra dimension scenarios; none of the current constraints on theories with very large extra dimensions apply.

Conventional wisdom states that Newton's force law implies only four non-compact dimensions. We demonstrate that this is not necessarily true in the presence of a non-factorizable background geometry. The specific example we study is a single 3-brane embedded in five dimensions. We show that even without a gap in the Kaluza-Klein spectrum, four-dimensional Newtonian and general relativistic gravity is reproduced to more than adequate precision.Comment: LaTex, 9 page

We show that in a general hidden sector model, supersymmetry breaking necessarily generates at one-loop a scalar and gaugino mass as a consequence of the super-Weyl anomaly. We study a scenario in which this contribution dominates. We consider the Standard Model particles to be localized on a (3+1)-dimensional subspace or "3-brane" of a higher dimensional spacetime, while supersymmetry breaking occurs off the 3-brane, either in the bulk or on another 3-brane. At least one extra dimension is assumed to be compactified roughly one to two orders of magnitude below the four-dimensional Planck scale. This framework is phenomenologically very attractive; it introduces new possibilities for solving the supersymmetric flavor problem, the gaugino mass problem, the supersymmetric CP problem, and the µ-problem. Furthermore, the compactification scale can be consistent with a unification of gauge and gravitational couplings. We demonstrate these claims in a four-dimensional effective theory below the compactification scale that incorporates the relevant features of the underlying higher dimensional theory and the contribution of the super-Weyl anomaly. Naturalness constraints follow not only from symmetries but also from the higher dimensional origins of the theory. We also introduce additional bulk contributions to the MSSM soft masses. This scenario is very predictive: the gaugino masses, squark masses, and A terms are given in terms of MSSM renormalization group functions.6. Sequestered supersymmetry breaking is very predictive. The ratio of gaugino masses depends on the beta functions, rather than simply the gauge coupling as for the other two scenarios. There is a nearly degenerate wino/zino LSP, of which the zino is the lighter. We predict A-terms proportional to the corresponding Yukawa couplings. 6