Four-Dimensional N=1 Super Yang-Mills Theory from an M-Theory Orbifold

Gravitational and gauge anomalies provide stringent constraints on which subset of chiral models can effectively describe M-theory at low energy. In this paper, we explicitly construct an abelian orbifold of M-theory to obtain an N=1, chiral super Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions, using anomaly matching to determine the entire gauge and representation structure. The model described in this paper is the simplest four dimensional model which one can construct from M-theory compactified on an abelian orbifold without freely-acting involutions. The gauge group is SO(12) x SU(8) x SU(2) x SU(2) x U(1).