Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications

To generate standard model physics from string theory is one of the main motivations for studying string theory. In this course, we will give a basic introduction of how to achieve this in the context of heterotic string theory from the space-time point of view. To do so, we will give an introduction to some mathematics of Calabi-Yau geometry, at the same time we will learn physics relevant for string compactification. And based on this, we will show why and how we can get a dictionary between 4 dimensional particle physics and the 6 dimensional Calabi-Yau geometry. Finally, we will review some recent progresses on heterotic compactification, including model building, moduli stabilization and calculation of Yukawa couplings. Through this course, we hope to learn some geometric tools as well as general physics picture in the study of string compactification.