SO(10) Grand Unification with a Low-Energy M_R

Contrary to commonly held belief, we show that one can obtain a low value for $M_R$, the $SU(2)_R$ breaking scale, in grand unification theories based on $SO(10)$. This possibility emerges in the supersymmetric version of $SO(10)$ with a judicious choice of Higgs content. The unification scale is found to be consistent with the constraint from proton decay. This result is first explicitly demonstrated using the one loop renormalization group equations, and then a full two loop analysis is carried out.