Unification without Unification

The logarithmic running of the gauge couplings α1, α2 and α3, indicates that they may unify at some scale MGUT ∼ 10 GeV. This is often taken to imply that the standard model gauge group is embedded into some larger simple group in which quarks and leptons are placed in the same multiplet. These models have generic features, such as proton decay, and generic problems, namely the splitting of the Higgs doublet and triplet. Here we propose an interesting alternative: we postulate a strongly coupled SU(3)⊗SU(2)⊗U(1), which is not the remnant of a GUT, and is Higgsed with a weakly coupled SU(3) ⊗ SU(2) ⊗ U(1), which is the remnant of a GUT, or with a GUT group directly, into the diagonal subgroup. In this “collapsed GUT” mechanism, unification of coupling constants in the low energy theory is expected, but proton decay and the doublet/triplet splitting problem are entirely absent.