Calabi–Yau spaces are complex spaces with a vanishing first Chern class, or, equivalently, with a trivial canonical bundle (sheaf), so they admit a Ricci-flat Kähler metric that satisfies the vacuum Einstein equations. Used to construct possibly realistic (super)string models, they are being studied vigorously by physicists and mathematicians alike. Calabi–Yau spaces have also turned up in computations of probability amplitudes in quantum field theory. This book collects and reviews relevant results on several major techniques of (1) constructing such spaces and (2) computing physically relevant quantities such as spectra of massless fields and their Yukawa interactions. These are amended by (3) stringy corrections and (4) results about the moduli space and its geometry, including a preliminary discussion of the still conjectural universal deformation space. It also contains a lexicon of assorted terms and important results and theorems, which can be used independently.
The first edition of Calabi–Yau Manifolds: A Bestiary for Physicists was the first systematic book covering Calabi–Yau spaces, related mathematics, and their application in physics. Thirty years on, this new edition explores the intense development in the field since 1992, providing an additional 400 references. It also addresses advances in machine learning and other computer-aided methods that have recently made physically relevant computations feasible, opened new avenues in the field, and begun to deliver concretely on the now 40-year-old promise of string theory. The presentation of ideas, results, and computational methods is complemented by detailed models and sample computations throughout. This second edition also contains a new closing section, outlining the staggering advances of the past three decades and providing suggestions for future reading.
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Sample Chapter(s)
Preface, 2024 Edition and 1992 Edition
Chapter 0: Spiritus Movens
Contents:
- Preface, 2024 Edition
- Preface, 1992 Edition
- About the Author
- Spiritus Movens
- Constructions:
- Complex Kindergarten
- Complete Intersections in Products of Projective Spaces
- Some More General Embeddings
- Group Actions, Quotients and Singularities
- Embeddings in Weighted Projective Spaces
- Fibered Products
- Cohomology:
- (Co)homology Basics
- Topological Triple Couplings
- (Co)homological Algebra
- Tangent Bundle Valued Cohomology
- Other Tangent Bundle Related Cohomology
- The (2, 1) Triple Couplings and Generalization
- Changelings:
- Parameter Spaces: From Afar
- Parameter Spaces: A Closer Look
- Concordance:
- A Prelude to Quantum Geometry
- Lexicon
- Afterword
- Bibliography
- Index
Readership: This book is suitable for physics and mathematics graduate and advanced undergraduate students, postdocs and faculty, as well as active researchers in the fields of string theory and algebraic geometry.
Reviews of the First Edition:
"Hübsch has patiently collected and described a sometimes bewilderingly large number of relevant techniques from differential geometry and he thoroughly works out some quite illuminating examples, including many of physical interest … His explanations are generally thorough and clear … Hübsch's exposition is engaging and entertaining … In the final section, Hübsch offers a tantalizing introduction to the many remarkable quantum properties of Calabi-Yau sigma models discovered in the last few years."
Edward Witten
Physics Today
"The book by Hübsch is the first and only available monograph bringing together the mathematical results and presenting them in a form useful for physicists. It is written in a light vein and often manages to simplify the mathematics, making them more palatable to physics users. An essential tool for workers on strings, supergravity and related topics."
Yuval Ne'eman
Tel Aviv University
"This book is full of interesting and illustrative examples. Here one can see the techniques and theorems of algebraic geometry in action. It is also written with a great deal of style. Though apparently for physicists, I would highly recommend it for mathematicians and especially for students of algebraic geometry. It is not easy to write for both mathematicians and physicists — I would say that this is an admirable example of such writing. Reading it, you will find that these manifolds are truly exciting creatures."
Michael Eastwood
University of Adelaide
Tristan Hübsch, born on Dec. 22 1958 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, Tristan Hübsch completed his BSc in physics in 1981 at the Institute of Physics, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. After 2 years of graduate study at the Department of Physics, University of Zagreb, Yugoslavia, he transferred to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he earned his PhD in physics in 1987.
Following postdoctoral positions at Harvard University, Cambridge (1990–92) and the University of Texas, Austin (1987–90), he has been a professor of physics at the Physics Department of Howard University since fall 1992, where he received tenure in 1997 and full professorship in 2001. He has been appointed a Research Professor at the University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) and the University of Maryland (College Park, MD), and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Novi Sad (Serbia) since 2007. Having participated in dozens of Spring and Summer schools and workshops, often as an invited lecturer, he has given over 130 invited lectures around the World. His research has been supported by various granting agencies, including The US Department of Energy (1994–2013); his efforts in improving physics education were supported by the The US Department of Education (MSEIP) from 1996 to 2002. His professional publications include over 130 research articles and three books. Please refer to Prof. Hübsch's inSPIRE's profile (citation-ordered listing), Scopus/Elsevier profile, Semantic Scholar profile, ORCID record, or Google Scholar profile.