We calculate the grand canonical partition function at the one-loop level for scalar quantum electrodynamics at finite temperature and chemical potential. A classical background charge density with a charge opposite that of the scalars ensures the neutrality of the system. For "low density" systems in which the number density of scalars is small compared to the fine-structure constant times the scalar mass $n^{1/3} \lesssim \alpha_{em} m$ we find evidence of a first order phase transition. We find upper and lower bounds on the transition temperature below which the charged scalars form a condensate. A first order phase transition may have consequences for helium-core white dwarf stars in which it has been argued that such a condensate of charged helium-4 nuclei could exist.

We construct instanton solutions describing the decay of flux compactifications of a $6d$ gauge theory by generalizing the Kaluza-Klein bubble of nothing. The surface of the bubble is described by a smooth magnetically charged solitonic brane whose asymptotic flux is precisely that responsible for stabilizing the 4d compactification. We describe several instances of bubble geometries for the various vacua occurring in a $6d$ Einstein-Maxwell theory namely, AdS_4 x S^2, R^{1,3} x S^2, and dS_4 x S^2. Unlike conventional solutions, the bubbles of nothing introduced here occur where a {\em two}-sphere compactification manifold homogeneously degenerates.

We show that the CPT groups of QED emerge naturally from the PT and P (or T) subgroups of the Lorentz group. We also find relationships between these discrete groups and continuous groups, like the connected Lorentz and Poincar\'e groups and their universal coverings.

We investigate a Friedmann universe filled with a tachyon scalar field, which behaves as dustlike matter in the past, while it is able to accelerate the expansion rate of the universe at late times. The comparison with type Ia supernovae (SNIa) data allows for evolutions driving the universe into a Big Brake. Some of the evolutions leading to a Big Brake exhibit a large variation of the equation of state parameter at low redshifts which is potentially observable with future data though hardly detectable with present SNIa data. The soft Big Brake singularity occurs at finite values of the scale factor, vanishing energy density and Hubble parameter, but diverging deceleration and infinite pressure. We show that the geodesics can be continued through the Big Brake and that our model universe will recollapse eventually in a Big Crunch. Although the time to the Big Brake strongly depends on the present values of the tachyonic field and its time derivative, the time from the Big Brake to the Big Crunch represents an invariant timescale for all field parameters allowed by SNIa.

To illustrate the general results of the previous paper, we discuss here a large concrete example of the orbifold-string theories of permutation-type. For each of the many subexamples, we focus on evaluation of the \emph{target space-time dimension} $\hat{D}_j(\sigma)$, the \emph{target space-time signature} and the \emph{target space-time symmetry} of each cycle $j$ in each twisted sector $\sigma$. We find in particular a gratifying \emph{space-time symmetry enhancement} which naturally matches the space-time symmetry of each cycle to its space-time dimension. Although the orbifolds of $\Z_{2}$-permutation-type are naturally Lorentzian, we find that the target space-times associated to larger permutation groups can be Lorentzian, Euclidean and even null (\hat{D}_{j}(\sigma)=0), with varying space-time dimensions, signature and symmetry in a single orbifold.

In string models with "brane supersymmetry breaking" exponential potentials emerge at (closed-string) tree level but are not accompanied by tachyons. Potentials of this type have long been a source of embarrassment in flat space, but can have interesting implications for Cosmology. For instance, in ten dimensions the logarithmic slope |V'/V| lies precisely at a "critical" value where the Lucchin--Matarrese attractor disappears while the scalar field is \emph{forced} to climb up the potential when it emerges from the Big Bang. This type of behavior is in principle perturbative in the string coupling, persists after compactification, could have trapped scalar fields inside potential wells as a result of the cosmological evolution and could have also injected the inflationary phase of our Universe.

We summarize, simplify and extend recent work showing that small deviations from exact thermality in Hawking radiation, first uncovered by Kraus and Wilczek, have the capacity to carry off the maximum information content of a black hole. This goes a considerable way toward resolving a long-standing "information-loss paradox".

Recently, a nonperturbative formulation of 4d N=4 super Yang-Mills theory which does not require fine tuning at least to all order in perturbation theory has been given by combining two-dimensional lattice and matrix model techniques. In this paper we provide an analogous model by utilizing deconstruction approach of Kaplan et al. Two-dimensional lattice with a plane wave deformation is deconstructed from a matrix model and two additional dimensions emerge through the Myers effect. In other words we construct a D1-brane theory from which a D3-brane theory comes out. The action is much simpler than the previous formulation and hence numerical study, which enables us to test the AdS/CFT duality at fully nonperturbative level, becomes much easier.

We find an exact solution for IR limit of field equations with critical exponent z=3 in Horava- Lifshitz (HL) gravity. We show that the cosmological constant term appearers as a constant external force field in the IR limit. The family of solutions contain the general family of flat wave equation. Also we note that since the HL theory in IR limit mimics R plus an extra term (pressureless matter i.e dark matter) and since in this case the lorentz symmetry is broken then all dark matter models (scalar-tensor) must be lorentz violating models. This work may be treats as an analytic proof for former Mukohyama's conjecture for the caustic avoidance for plane symmetry in HL gravity\cite{Caustic}.

Exact nonstatic spherically symmetric black-hole solution of the higher dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills equations for a null dust with Yang-Mills gauge charge are obtained by employing Wu-Yang \textit{ansatz}, namely, HD-EYM Vaidya solution. It is interesting to note that gravitational contribution of YM gauge charge for this ansatz is indeed opposite (attractive rather than repulsive) that of Maxwell charge. It turns out that the gravitational collapse of null dust with YM gauge charge admit strong curvature shell focusing naked singularities violating cosmic censorship. However, there is significant shrinkage of the initial data space for a naked singularity of the HD-Vaidya collapse due to presence of YM gauge charge. The effect of YM gauge charge on structure and location of the apparent and event horizons is also discussed.

An approach to realize a hyperon as a bound-state of a two-flavor baryon and a kaon is considered in the context of the Sakai-Sugimoto model of holographic QCD, which approach has been known in the Skyrme model as the bound-state approach to strangeness. As a simple case of study, pseudo-scalar kaon is considered as fluctuation around a baryon. In this case, strongly-bound hyperon-states are absent, different from the case of the Skyrme model. Observed is a weak bound-state which would correspond to \Lambda(1405).

We numerically study the dual field theory evolution of five-dimensional asymptotically anti-de Sitter solutions of supergravity that develop cosmological singularities. The dual theory is an unstable deformation of the N = 4 gauge theory on R � S3, and the big crunch singularity in the bulk occurs when a boundary scalar field runs to infinity. Consistent quantum evolution requires one imposes boundary conditions at infinity. Modeling these by a steep regularization of the scalar potential, we find that when an initially nearly homogeneous wavepacket rolls down the potential, most of the potential energy of the initial configuration is converted into gradient energy during the first oscillation of the field. This indicates there is no transition from a big crunch to a big bang in the bulk for dual boundary conditions of this kind.

We provide an algebraic way to calculate the quasi-normal modes of a black hole, which possesses a hidden conformal symmetry. We construct an infinite tower of quasi-normal modes from the highest-weight mode, in a simple and elegant way. For the scalar, the hidden conformal symmetry manifest itself in the fact that the scalar Laplacian could be rewritten in terms of the $SL(2,R)$ quadratic Casimir. For the vector and the tensor, the hidden conformal symmetry acts on them through Lie derivatives. We show that for three-dimensional black holes, with appropriate combination of the components the radial equations of the vector and the tensor could be written in terms of the Lie-induced quadratic Casimir. This allows the algebraic construction of the quasi-normal modes feasible. Our results are in good agreement with the previous study.

Transverse Diffeomorphism (TDiff) theories are well-motivated theories of gravity from the quantum perspective, which are based upon a gauge symmetry principle. The main contribution of this work is to firmly establish a correspondence between TransverseDiff and the better-known scalar-tensor gravity --- in its more general form ---, a relation which is completely analogous to that between unimodular gravity and General Relativity. We then comment on observational aspects of TDiff. In connection with this proof, we derive a very general rule that determines under what conditions the procedure of fixing a gauge symmetry can be equivalently applied before the variational principle leading to the equations of motion, as opposed to the standard procedure, which takes place afterwards; this rule applies to gauge-fixing terms without derivatives.

We present off-shell generating function for all cubic interactions of Higher Spin gauge fields constructed in arXiv:1003.2877. It is a generalization of on-shell generating function proposed in arXiv:1006.5242. It's written in a very compact way and turns out to have remarkable structure.

The chameleon is a scalar field whose mass depends on the density of its environment. Chameleons are necessarily coupled to matter particles and will excite transitions between atomic energy levels in an analogous manner to photons. When created inside an optical cavity by passing a laser beam through a constant magnetic field, chameleons are trapped between the cavity walls and form a standing wave. This effect will lead to an afterglow phenomenon even when the laser beam and the magnetic field have been turned off, and could be used to probe the interactions of the chameleon field with matter.

We study the spectrum of the integrable open XXX Heisenberg spin chain subject to non-diagonal boundary magnetic fields. The spectral problem for this model can be formulated in terms of functional equations obtained by separation of variables or, equivalently, from the fusion of transfer matrices. For generic boundary conditions the eigenvalues cannot be obtained from the solution of finitely many algebraic Bethe equations. Based on careful finite size studies of the analytic properties of the underlying hierarchy of transfer matrices we devise two approaches to analyze the functional equations. First we introduce a truncation method leading to Bethe type equations determining the energy spectrum of the spin chain. In a second approach the hierarchy of functional equations is mapped to an infinite system of non-linear integral equations of TBA type. The two schemes have complementary ranges of applicability and facilitate an efficient numerical analysis for a wide range of boundary parameters. Some data are presented on the finite size corrections to the energy of the state which evolves into the antiferromagnetic ground state in the limit of parallel boundary fields.

We study the quantum field theory (QFT) of a free, real and massless scalar field on self-similar symmetric spacetimes, which are deformed by an abelian Drinfel'd twist constructed from a Killing and a homothetic Killing vector field. In contrast to deformations solely by Killing vector fields, such as the Moyal-Weyl Minkowski spacetime, the equation of motion and Green's operators are deformed. We show that there is a *-algebra isomorphism between the QFT on the deformed and the formal power series extension of the QFT on the undeformed spacetime. We study the convergent implementation of our deformations for toy-models. For these models it is found that there is a *-isomorphism between the deformed Weyl algebra and a reduced undeformed Weyl algebra, where certain strongly localized observables are excluded. Thus, our models realize the intuitive physical picture that noncommutative geometry prevents arbitrary localization in spacetime.

Classical particles in certain deformed relativistic symmetries scenarios relevant for non-commutative field theories exhibit a momentum space described by a group manifold. Starting with a formulation of phase space for such particles which allows for a generalization to include a group valued momenta we discuss quantization of the corresponding field theory. Focusing on the particular case of kappa-deformed phase space we construct the one-particle Hilbert space and show how curvature in momentum space leads to an ambiguity in the quantization procedure reminiscent of the ambiguities one finds when quantizing fields in curved space-times. The tools gathered in the discussion on quantization allow for a clear definition of the basic deformed field mode operators and two-point function for kappa-quantum fields.

We present analytic results for the finite diagrams contributing to the two-loop eight-point MHV scattering amplitude of planar N=4 SYM. We use a recently proposed representation for the integrand of the amplitude in terms of (momentum) twistors and focus on a restricted kinematics in which the answer depends only on two independent cross-ratios. The theory of motives can be used to vastly simplify the results, which can be expressed as simple combinations of classical polylogarithms.

Given a pure state vector |x> and a density matrix rho, the function p(x|rho)=<x|rho|x> defines a probability density on the space of pure states parameterised by density matrices. The associated Fisher-Rao information measure is used to define a unitary invariant Riemannian metric on the space of density matrices. An alternative derivation of the metric, based on square-root density matrices and trace norms, is provided. This is applied to the problem of quantum-state estimation. In the simplest case of unitary parameter estimation, new higher-order corrections to the uncertainty relations, applicable to general mixed states, are derived.

We study the transition form factors of the light mesons in the kinematics, where one photon is real and other is virtual. Using the dispersive approach to axial anomaly we show that the axial anomaly in this case reveals itself as a collective effect of meson spectrum. This allows us to get the relation between possible corrections to continuum and to lower states within QCD method which does not rely on factorization hypothesis. We show, relying on the recent data of BaBar collaboration, that the relative correction to continuum is quite small, and small correction to continuum can dramatically change the pion form factor.

We extend the direct integration method of the holomorphic anomaly equations to general Omega backgrounds for pure SU(2) N=2 Super-Yang-Mills theory and topological string theory on non-compact Calabi-Yau threefolds. We find that an extension of the holomorphic anomaly equation, modularity and boundary conditions provided by the perturbative terms as well as by the gap condition at the conifold are sufficient to solve the generalized theory in the above cases. In particular we use the method to solve the topological string for the general Omega backgrounds on non-compact toric Calabi-Yau spaces. The conifold boundary condition follows from that the N=2 Schwinger-Loop calculation with BPS states coupled to a self-dual and an anti-self-dual field strength. We calculate such BPS states also for the decompactification limit of Calabi-Yau spaces with regular K3 fibrations and half K3s embedded in Calabi-Yau backgrounds.

We find linearly independent solutions of the Goncharov-Firsova equation in the case of a massive complex scalar field on a Kerr black hole. The solutions generalize, in some sense, the classical monopole spherical harmonic solutions previously studied in the massless cases.

We study counterterms (CT's), candidates for UV divergences in the four-dimensional N=8 supergravity. They have been constructed long ago in a Lorentz covariant on shell superspace and recently in the chiral light-cone (LC) superspace. We prove that all of these CT's are ruled out since they are not available in the real LC superspace. This implies the perturbative UV finiteness of d=4 N=8 supergravity under the assumption that supersymmetry and continuos E7 symmetry are anomaly-free. The proof, based on the chiral nature of CT's in the LC superspace, is a generalization of the perturbative F-term non-renormalization theorem for N=8 supergravity.

Several lines of evidence hint that quantum gravity at very small distances may be effectively two-dimensional. I summarize the evidence for such ``spontaneous dimensional reduction,'' and suggest an additional argument coming from the strong-coupling limit of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. If this description proves to be correct, it suggests a fascinating relationship between small-scale quantum spacetime and the behavior of cosmologies near an asymptotically silent singularity.

We compute form factors in planar N=4 Super Yang-Mills at strong coupling. Namely we consider the overlap between an operator insertion and 2n gluons. Through the gauge/string duality these are given by minimal surfaces in AdS space. The surfaces end on an infinite periodic sequence of null segments at the boundary of AdS. We consider surfaces that can be embedded in AdS_3. We derive set of functional equations for the cross ratios as functions of the spectral parameter. These equations are of the form of a Y-system. The integral form of the Y-system has Thermodynamics Bethe Ansatz form. The area is given by the free energy of the TBA system or critical value of Yang-Yang functional. We consider a restricted set of operators which have small conformal dimension.

We construct the action of the quantum group U_v(sl_n) by the natural correspondences in the equivariant localized $K$-theory of the Laumon based Quasiflags' moduli spaces. The resulting module is the universal Verma module. We construct geometrically the Shapovalov scalar product and the Whittaker vectors. It follows that a certain generating function of the characters of the global sections of the structure sheaves of the Laumon moduli spaces satisfies a $v$-difference analogue of the quantum Toda lattice system, reproving the main theorem of Givental-Lee. The similar constructions are performed for the affine Lie agebra \hat{sl}_n.

Let G denote a complex, semisimple, simply-connected group. We identify the equivariant quantum differential differential equation for the cotangent bundle to the flag variety of G with the affine Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov connection of Cherednik and Matsuo. This recovers Kim's description of quantum cohomology of the flag variety itself as a limiting case. A parallel result is proven for resolutions of the Slodowy slices. Extension to arbitrary symplectic resolutions is discussed.

A GL(2, R) structure on an (n+1)-dimensional manifold is a smooth pointwise identification of tangent vectors with polynomials in two variables homogeneous of degree n. This, for even n=2k, defines a conformal structure of signature (k, k+1) by specifying the null vectors to be the polynomials with vanishing quadratic invariant. We focus on the case n=6 and show that the resulting conformal structure in seven dimensions is compatible with a conformal G_2 structure or its non-compact analogue. If a GL(2, R) structure arises on a moduli space of rational curves on a surface with self-intersection number 6, then certain components of the intrinsic torsion of the G_2 structure vanish. We give examples of simple 7th order ODEs whose solution curves are rational and find the corresponding G_2 structures. In particular we show that Bryant's weak G_2 holonomy metric on the homology seven-sphere SO(5)/SO(3) is the unique weak G_2 metric arising from a rational curve.

We describe the "Feynman diagram" approach to nonrelativistic quantum mechanics on R^n, with magnetic and potential terms. In particular, for each classical path \gamma connecting points q_0 and q_1 in time t, we define a formal power series V_\gamma(t,q_0,q_1) in \hbar, given combinatorially by a sum of diagrams that each represent finite-dimensional convergent integrals. We prove that exp(V_\gamma) satisfies Schr\"odinger's equation, and explain in what sense the t\to 0 limit approaches the \delta distribution. As such, our construction gives explicitly the full \hbar\to 0 asymptotics of the fundamental solution to Schr\"odinger's equation in terms of solutions to the corresponding classical system. These results justify the heuristic expansion of Feynman's path integral in diagrams.

We construct a cosmological toy model based on a Finslerian structure of space-time. In particular, we are interested in a specific Finslerian Lorentz violating theory based on a curved version of Glashow's Very Special Relativity. The osculation of a Finslerian manifold to a Riemannian leads to the limit of Relativistic Cosmology, for a specified observer. The kinematical equations of motion are affected by local anisotropies. Seeds of Lorentz Violations may trigger density inhomogeneities to the cosmological fluid.

Given an arbitrary Lagrangian function on \RR^d and a choice of classical path, one can try to define Feynman's path integral supported near the classical path as a formal power series parameterized by "Feynman diagrams," although these diagrams may diverge. We compute this expansion and show that it is (formally, if there are ultraviolet divergences) invariant under volume-preserving changes of coordinates. We prove that if the ultraviolet divergences cancel at each order, then our formal path integral satisfies a "Fubini theorem" expressing the standard composition law for the time evolution operator in quantum mechanics. Moreover, we show that when the Lagrangian is inhomogeneous-quadratic in velocity such that its homogeneous-quadratic part is given by a matrix with constant determinant, then the divergences cancel at each order. Thus, by "cutting and pasting" and choosing volume-compatible local coordinates, our construction defines a Feynman-diagrammatic "formal path integral" for the nonrelativistic quantum mechanics of a charged particle moving in a Riemannian manifold with an external electromagnetic field.

Recently Alday, Gaiotto and Tachikawa proposed a conjecture relating 4-dimensional super-symmetric gauge theory for a gauge group G with certain 2-dimensional conformal field theory. This conjecture implies the existence of certain structures on the (equivariant) intersection cohomology of the Uhlenbeck partial compactification of the moduli space of framed G-bundles on P^2. More precisely, it predicts the existence of an action of the corresponding W-algebra on the above cohomology, satisfying certain properties. We propose a ``finite analog" of the (above corollary of the) AGT conjecture. Namely, we replace the Uhlenbeck space with the space of based quasi-maps from P^1 to any partial flag variety G/P of G and conjecture that its equivariant intersection cohomology carries an action of the finite W-algebra U(g,e) associated with the principal nilpotent element in the Lie algebra of the Levi subgroup of P; this action is expected to satisfy some list of natural properties. This conjecture generalizes the main result of arXiv:math/0401409 when P is the Borel subgroup. We prove our conjecture for G=GL(N), using the works of Brundan and Kleshchev interpreting the algebra U(g,e) in terms of certain shifted Yangians.