Dark dimension with (little) strings attached

Abstract: We motivate a relation between dark energy and the scale of new physics in weakly coupled string theory. This mixing between infrared and ultraviolet physics leads to a unique corner for real-world phenomenology: barring fine-tunings, we are naturally led to the dark dimension'' scenario, a single mesoscopic extra dimension of micron size with the standard model localized on D-branes. Our explicit top-down worldsheet derivation establishes it on a more solid grounding. Allowing some fine-tuning, such that the vacuum energy only arise at higher orders in string perturbation theory, thelittle string theory'' scenario with a very weakly coupled string is an alternative possibility. In this case, the string scale lies at the edge of detectability of particle accelerators.