Symmetry breaking patterns in superstring models

It was recently proposed (by Candelas, Horowitz, Strominger and the author) that compact manifolds of SU(3) holonomy are an interesting starting point for superstring phenomenology. Some aspects of such models are explored in this paper. Possible low-energy gauge groups are classified. It is shown that these theories have a mechanism to produce extra massless Higgs doublets unaccompanied by light color triplets. The SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1) couplings obey the standard relations after E₆ breaking, so the standard computation of sin²θ is valid. These models lead typically to discrete global symmetries, but a model in which these symmetries forbid all baryon-violating dimension-four operators may be hard to find. An alternative possibility (involving O(6) holonomy) is discussed in the last section.