New paths through the desert: Improving on minimal SU(5)

We present a model with a particle spectrum identical to minimal SU(5) below the SU(5)-breaking mass scale MX, where the gauge group is the standard SUC(3)×[SUL(2)×U(1)]GWS (GWS= Glashow-Weinberg-Salam). However, unlike minimal SU(5), a nonstandard hypercharge embedding into E₆ allows our model to have MX large enough to agree with present limits on proton decay and simultaneously have a weak mixing angle in agreement with the experimental value extracted from the W and Z⁰ masses.