SoylentNews

mbo42 writes:

Carlos Shahbazi has presented the first two articles of a series that introduce the layman to the basics of String Theory.
link: http://mappingignorance.org/2015/05/06/the-geometry-of-string-theory-compactifications-i-the-basics/

"The sphere is also a simple example of a compact manifold, which is a particular class of manifolds of utmost importance in String Theory compactifications, as we will see in a moment. The compactness condition can be intuitively understood using Euclidean space. A manifold embedded in Euclidean space, as the sphere in figure 3, is compact if and only if it is bounded, namely it is contained in a finite size region of E and it is closed, namely it contains all its limiting points."

[The second article is "The geometry of String Theory compactifications (II): finding the Calabi-Yau manifold" -Ed.]

If that's too easy for you; the same author also has "Black hole solutions of N=2, d=4 super-gravity with a quantum correction, in the H-FGK formalism"
link: http://www.mathpubs.com/author/Carlos+S.+Shahbazi