Nonperturbative flipped SU(5) vacua in Horava-Witten theory

There is good support for the embedding of the Standard Model fermions in the chiral 16 representation of SO(10). Such an embedding is provided by the realistic free fermionic heterotic-string models. In this talk we demonstrate the existence of solutions with 3 generations and SO(10) observable gauge group, in the case of compactification on a torus-fibred Calabi-Yau space over a Hirzebruch base surface. The SO(10)symmetry is broken to SU(5)xU(1) by a Wilson line. The overlap with the realistic free fermionic heterotic-string models is discussed.