Stringent Phenomenological Investigation into Heterotic String Optical   Unification
  For the weakly coupled heterotic string (WCHS) there is a well-known factor of twenty conflict between the minimum string coupling unification scale, Lambda_H ~5x10^(17) GeV, and the projected MSSM unification scale, Lambda_U ~ 2.5x10^(16) GeV, assuming an intermediate scale desert (ISD). Renormalization effects of intermediate scale MSSM-charged exotics (ISME) (endemic to quasi-realistic string models) can resolve this issue, pushing the MSSM scale up to the string scale. However, for a generic string model, this implies that the projected Lambda_U unification under ISD is accidental. If the true unification scale is 5.0x10^(17) GeV, is it possible that illusionary unification at 2.5x10^(17) GeV in the ISD scenario is not accidental? If it is not, then under what conditions would the assumption of ISME in a WCHS model imply apparent unification at Lambda_U when ISD is falsely assumed? Geidt's "optical unification" suggests that Lambda_U is not accidental, by offering a mechanism whereby a generic MSSM scale Lambda_U < Lambda_H is guaranteed. A WCHS model was constructed that offers the possibility of optical unification, depending on the availability of anomaly-cancelling flat directions meeting certain requirements. This paper reports on the systematic investigation of the optical unification properties of the set of stringent flat directions of this model. Stringent flat directions can be guaranteed to be F-flat to all finite order (or to at least a given finite order consistent with electroweak scale supersymmetry breaking) and can be viewed as the likely roots of more general flat directions. Analysis of the phenomenology of stringent flat directions gives an indication of the remaining optical unification phenomenology that must be garnered by flat directions developed from them. 
J. Perkins, B. Dundee, R. Obousy, S. Hatten, E. Kasper, M. Robinson,   C. Sloan, K. Stone, and G. Cleaver