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# Strings, D-branes and Calabi-Yau compactifications

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Gabriele Honecker (Mainz)

What SFB-Kolloquium Oct 25, 2012 from 03:15 pm to 04:15 pm Mainz, 05-432 (Hilbertraum) vCal iCal

Abstract: String theories are given by 1+1 dimensional (worldsheet') field theories, which are embedded in a 1+(D-1) dimensional target' spacetime. Quantisation of the theory plusupersymmetry (=relation among bosonic and fermionic fields) constrains the target spacetime to be ten dimensional. Compactifications of six dimensions on Calabi-Yau threefolds lead to four dimensional supersymmetric field theories. Endpoints of open strings are confined to p-dimensional planes, the `Dp-branes', within the target spacetime and provide gauge degrees of freedom. This talk aims at providing a brief introduction into the basic concepts of string theory (and D-branes) and why Calabi-Yau manifolds (and special Lagrangian cycles) are of interest to theoretical physicists.