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arxiv: 2510.25832 · v2 · pith:JXXBCR3Inew · submitted 2025-10-29 · ✦ hep-th · hep-ph

The dark dimension, proton decay, and the length of the M-theory interval

classification ✦ hep-th hep-ph
keywords dimensiondarkdecayeleventhintervallengthm-theoryproton
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The existence of a large extra dimension in which only gravity propagates would have spectacular consequences for cosmology and laboratory experiments. In the strong coupling limit of the $E_8\times E_8$ heterotic string theory, the gauge and matter fields live at the end of the eleventh dimension, which becomes a natural candidate for a micron-size \textit{dark dimension}. In this work, however, we show that the length of the M-theory interval is severely constrained by proton decay searches. Our results indicate that in such constructions the size of the eleventh dimension is $R\lesssim \mathcal{O}(10^{-28})$ meters.

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