The Low Energy Limit of String Theory and its Compactifications with Background Fluxes

Abstract

String theory is consistently defined in ten dimensions. In order to extract any information about four-dimensional physics, we need to understand the properties of the six-dimensional compact manifold orthogonal to our four-dimensional universe. A possibility that is being very much explored lately is to look at manifolds on which background fluxes are turned on. In this article, we present an introduction to string theory, focusing on its massless sector. We then review traditional compactifications to four–dimensions, and finally motivate and describe the so-called flux compactifications. We interpret the allowed six-dimensional manifolds from the point of view of generalized complex geometry.