Topological limit of gravity admitting an SU(2) connection formulation
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.

title: Quantum cosmology at finite temperature in superstring theory
abstract: We study cosmology induced by an ideal superstring gas at finite temperature. The thermal/quantum effects of the string gas generate a nontrivial effective potential at one-loop level. At certain points in the moduli space where generically massive states become massless, the effective potential develops local minima. The latter serve as moduli attractors, which induce time-dependent scalar masses decreasing in cosmological time. As a result, the coherent scalar oscillations dilute before nucleosynthesis, and the cosmological moduli problem is avoided. In particular, we study moduli stabilization in the cases of cosmology induced by i) a maximally supersymmetric heterotic string gas; ii) a gas of type II string compactified on Calabi-Yau three-folds. In case i), the local minima of the potential arise at enhanced gauge symmetry points, which can stabilize all moduli but the dilaton. In case ii), local minima of the effective potential are reached at the loci where 2-spheres or 3-spheres in the Calabi-Yau space shrink to zero size, giving rise to either conifold transitions or non Abelian gauge symmetries. Extra massless states are induced by D-brane wrapping the shrinking spheres, and the stabilized moduli are those controlling the volume of those spheres. In addition, in the two cases we also study respectively the type I dual theory which is maximally supersymmetric and the heterotic dual theory compactified on K3xT2. We show that dual moduli can be stabilized by novel non-perturbative effects implied by duality maps.

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: Lecture notes on thermodynamics of ideal string gases and its application in cosmology
abstract: In these lecture notes I give a pedagogical introduction to the thermodynamics of ideal string gases. The computation of thermodynamic quantities in the canonical ensemble formalism will be shown in detail with explicit examples. Attention will be given mainly to the thermodynamical consequences of string degrees of freedom, where I will especially address i) the Hagedorn temperature, a critical temperature above which the canonical ensemble description breaks down, which can be the onset point of some instability of the string gas; ii) the phase structure arising from compactification, embodied in the moduli-dependence of the Helmholtz free energy, which corrects the tree-level vacuum and can provide mechanism for moduli stabilization. Then I will briefly explain the implementation of string gas thermodynamics in cosmology, showing a simple example which gives rise to a radiation-dominated early universe. Further phenomenological issues and open questions will be discussed qualitatively with references indicated, including the Hagedorn instability in the resolution of the initial singularity, moduli stabilization, generation of hierarchy, radiative symmetry breaking and primordial cosmological fluctuations.

title: Moduli stabilization in type II Calabi-Yau compactifications at finite temperature
abstract: A bstractWe consider the type II superstring compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds, at finite temperature. The latter is implemented at the string level by a free action on the Euclidean time circle. We show that all Kähler and complex structure moduli involved in the gauge theories geometrically engineered in the vicinity of singular loci are lifted by the stringy thermal effective potential. The analysis is based on the effective gauged super-gravity at low energy, without integrating out the non-perturbative BPS states becoming massless at the singular loci. The universal form of the action in the weak coupling regime and at low enough temperature is determined in two cases. Namely, the conifold locus, as well as a locus where the internal space develops a genus-g curve of AN −1 singularities, thus realizing an SU(N ) gauge theory coupled to g hypermultiplets in the adjoint. In general, we argue that the favored points of stabilization sit at the intersection of several such loci. As a result, the entire vector multiplet moduli space is expected to be lifted, together with hypermultiplet moduli. The scalars are dynamically stabilized during the cosmological evolution induced by the back-reaction of the thermal effective potential on the originally static background. When the universe expands and the temperature T drops, the scalars converge to minima, with damped oscillations. Moreover, they store an energy density that scales as T4, which never dominates over radiation. The reason for this is that the mass they acquire at one-loop is of order the temperature scale, which is time-dependent rather than constant. As an example, we analyze the type IIA compactification on a hy-persurface $$ \mathbb{P}_{{\left(  \right)}}^4 $$ [12], with Hodge numbers h11 = 2 and h12 = 128. In this case, both Kähler moduli are stabilized at a point, where the internal space develops a node and an enhanced SU(2) gauge theory coupled to 2 adjoint hypermultiplets. This shows that in the dual thermal heterotic picture on K3 × T2, the torus modulus and the axio-dilaton are stabilized, though in a strong coupling heterotic regime.

title: Nonlinear realization of N=2 superconformal symmetry and brane effective actions
abstract: Since there is an incompatibility of simultaneously nonlinear breaking the superconformal symmetry and the dilatation symmetry with the dilaton taken as the compensator field, in the present paper is shown an alternative mechanism of spontaneous breaking the N=2 superconformal symmetry to the N=0 case. By using the approach of nonlinear transformations one finds that it leads to a space-filling brane theory with Weyl scale W(1,3) symmetry. The dynamics of the resulting Weyl scale invariant brane, along with that of other Nambu–Goldstone fields, is derived in terms of the building blocks of the vierbein and the covariant derivative from the Maurer–Cartan one-forms. A general coupling of the matter fields localized on the brane world volume to these NG fields is also constructed.

title: Sommerfeld's quantum condition of action and the spectra of Schwarzschild black hole
abstract: If the situation of quantum gravity nowadays is nearly the same as that of the quantum mechanics in it's early time of Bohr and Sommerfeld, then a first step study of the quantum gravity from Sommerfeld's quantum condition of action might be helpful. In this short paper the spectra of Schwarzschild black hole(SBH) in quasi-classical approach of quantum mechanics is given. We find the quantum of area, the quantum of entropy and the Hawking evaporation will cease as the black hole reaches its ground state.

title: Readout electronics of the ALICE photon spectrometer
abstract: The photon spectrometer (PHOS) in the ALICE experiment at LHC is a PbWO4 crystal based electromagnetic calorimeter, dedicated to measuring photons, π°'s and η's over a broad pT range from about 100 MeV/c to 100 GeV/c with the best possible energy and position resolution. The front-end electronics of the PHOS is thus required to cover a large dynamic range, to achieve a timing resolution better than ~ 2 ns in order to discriminate against 1-2 GeV/c (anti-)neutrons, and to provide high pT trigger to select rare high pT events. In this paper, we present the full PHOS readout system, including the avalanche photo-diode, the low noise charge sensitive preamplifier, the 32 channel front-end electronics card, the trigger region unit and the trigger OR module. Results from PHOS commissioning with beam particles and cosmic rays will also be presented to address the performance of the PHOS readout electronics.

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: The Statistic thermodynamical entropy of de Sitter space and its one loop correction
abstract: From the partition function of canonical ensemble we derive the entropy of the de Sitter space by anti-Wick rotation. And then from the one-loop bubble $S^2\times S^2$ created from vacuum fluctuation in de Sitter background space, we obtain the one-loop quantum correction to the entropy of de Sitter space.