Thermodynamics of de Sitter universes
It is shown that the first law of thermodynamics can be applied to the de Sitter universe to relate its vacuum energy, pressure, entropy of horizon, chemical potential, etc., when the cosmological constant changes due to the fluctuation of the vacuum or other reasons. The second law should be reformulated in the form that the spontaneous decay of the vacuum never makes the entropy of the de Sitter universe decrease. The third law of thermodynamics, applying to the de Sitter universe, implies that the cosmological constant cannot reach zero by finite physical processes. The relation to the holographic principle is also briefly discussed.

title: Quantum-gravity interpretation of Brans-Cicke theory?the back-reaction of the vacuum matter field upon the Einstein space-time
abstract: A quantum gravity version is given to the Brans-Dicke theory. We find that the matter field quantum fluctuation induces the conformal quantum fluctuation of space-time, and that the latter backreacts to the classical space-time and transforms it from Einstein space-time into the Brans-Dicke one.

title: FOAM-LIKE STRUCTURE CREATED FROM (1+1) DIMENSIONAL VACUUM FLUCTUATION
abstract: As is known, the two-dimensional (2D) gravitational theory is a very good toy model for studying the four-dimensional gravitational theory. Now in this paper, it is shown that the vacuum fluctuation in 2D gravity can create a foam-like structure of space-time, which is constructed from wormhole.

title: Third Quantization of a Solvable Model in Quantum Cosmology in Brans-Dicke Theory
abstract: In this paper we constructed the formula of the third quantization of a solvable model in quantum cosmology based on the Brans-Dicke theory and got an abnormal distribution.

title: Complex geometry, quantum tunneling, and time machines.
abstract: A space with a complex metric permitted by quantum cosmology is given; two regions, one containing no closed causal curve and one containing closed timelike curves, are separated by a complex region. Through quantum tunneling one can travel from one region to the other. The vacuum polarization stress-energy tensor converges everywhere so the space is stable. This challenges Hawking's chronology protection conjecture and highlights on building a time machine

title: Classical Instability of Anti-de Sitter Universe
abstract: This article discusses the gravitational stability of anti-de Sitter universe. It turns out that anti-de Sitter universe with closed timelike curves is unstable to gravitational perturbations.

title: Scaling of the CKM Matrix in the 5D MSSM
abstract: We discuss a five-dimensional minimal supersymmetric standard model compactified on a ${S}^{1}/{Z}_{2}$ orbifold, looking at, in particular, the one-loop evolution equations of the Yukawa couplings for the quark sector and various flavor observables. Different possibilities for the matter fields are discussed; that is, where they are in the bulk or localized to the brane. The two possibilities give rise to quite different behaviors. By studying the implications of the evolution with the renormalization group of the Yukawa couplings and of the flavor observables, we find that, for a theory that is valid up to the unification scale, the case where fields are localized to the brane, with a large $\mathrm{tan}﻿\ensuremath{\beta}$, would be more easily distinguishable from other scenarios.

title: Moduli stabilisation in early superstring cosmology
abstract: We study the cosmological evolution induced by the free energy of a string gas at finite temperature. We first consider the maximally supersymmetric heterotic string in the weak coupling regime in dimension D ≥ 4. The free energy develops local minima associated to some gauge symmetry enhancement induced by perturbative states. This can stabilize all heterotic moduli except the dilaton. By string-string S-dualities, it follows that the dual type I moduli can be stabilized by either non perturbative D-string states or perturbative open string states. We next consider the type II string compactified on Calabi-Yau three-folds, which has = 2 supersymmetry in D = 4. The moduli space has singular loci where the Calabi-Yau space undergoes extremal transitions, accompanied with either conifold transitions or certain gauge symmetry enhancement. Also the free energy reaches local minima due to the emergence of extra non perturbative massless modes. Consequently, the type II moduli are attracted to these singular loci. Using the type II/heterotic string duality, we can stabilize the dual heterotic moduli, and in particular it is possible to stabilize the heterotic dilaton.

title: NON-ABELIAN VORTEX-STRING DYNAMICS FROM NONLINEAR REALIZATION
abstract: The dynamics of the non-Abelian vortex-string, which describes its low energy oscillations into the target D = 3+1 space–time as well as its orientations in the internal space, is derived by the approach of nonlinear realization. The resulting action correlating these two sectors is found to have an invariant synthesis form of the Nambu–Goto-CPN-1 model actions. Higher order corrections to the vortex actions are presented up to the order of quartic derivatives. General p-brane dynamics in terms of the internal symmetry breaking is also discussed.

title: Tetraquarks, hadronic molecules, meson-meson scattering and disconnected contributions in lattice QCD
abstract: There are generally two types of Wick contractions in lattice QCD calculations of a correlation function: connected and disconnected ones. The disconnected contribution is difficult to calculate and noisy, thus it is often neglected. In the context of studying tetraquarks, hadronic molecules, and mesonmeson scattering, we show that whenever there are both connected and singly disconnected contractions, the singly disconnected part gives the leading order contribution, and thus should never be neglected. As an explicit example, we show that information about the scalar mesons sigma, f(0)(980), a(0)(980), and kappa will be lost when neglecting the disconnected contributions.

title: Topological limit of gravity admitting an SU(2) connection formulation
abstract: We study the Hamiltonian formulation of the generally covariant theory defined by the Lagrangian 4-form L=e{sub I} and e{sub J} and F{sup IJ}({omega}), where e{sup I} is a tetrad field and F{sup IJ} is the curvature of a Lorentz connection . This theory can be thought of as the limit of the Holst action for gravity for the Newton constant G{yields}{infinity} and Immirzi parameter {gamma}{yields}0, while keeping the product G{gamma} fixed. This theory has for a long time been conjectured to be topological. We prove this statement both in the covariant phase space formulation as well as in the standard Dirac formulation. In the time gauge, the unconstrained phase space of theory admits an SU(2) connection formulation which makes it isomorphic to the unconstrained phase space of gravity in terms of Ashtekar-Barbero variables. Among possible physical applications, we argue that the quantization of this topological theory might shed new light on the nature of the degrees of freedom that are responsible for black entropy in loop quantum gravity.