GRAVITATIONAL THERMODYNAMICS OF SPACETIME FOAM IN ONE-LOOP APPROXIMATION
We show from one-loop quantum gravity and statistical thermodynamics that the thermodynamics of quantum foam in flat spacetime and Schwarzschild spacetime is exactly the same as that of Hawking–Unruh radiation in thermal equilibrium. This means we show unambiguously that Hawking–Unruh thermal radiation should contain thermal gravitons or the contribution of quantum spacetime foam. As a by-product, we give also the quantum gravity correction in one-loop approximation to the classical black hole thermodynamics.

title: The quantum cosmology in the Brans-Dicke theory
abstract: In this paper, we try to establish the quantum cosmology based on the Brans-Dicke gravitational theory. The most remarkable property of it is that the scale factora(t) has a lower limit, where the cosmological wave function approaches zero.

title: The cosmological origin of Higgs particles
abstract: A proposal of the cosmological origin of Higgs particles is given. We show, that the Higgs field could be created from the vacuum quantum conformal fluctuation of Anti-de Sitter space-time, the spontaneous breaking of vacuum symmetry, and the mass of Higgs particle are related to the cosmological constant of our universe,especially the theoretical estimated mass m$_{H}$ of Higgs particles is m$_{H}=\sqrt{-2\mu ^{2}}$ =$\sqrt{|\Lambda /\pi}$.

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: Thermodynamics of de Sitter universes
abstract: 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: 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: Interactions of Charmed Mesons with Light Pseudoscalar Mesons from Lattice QCD and Implications on the Nature of the $D_{s0}^*(2317)$
abstract: We study the scattering of charmed mesons (D, D{sub s}) with light pseudoscalar mesons ({pi}, K) in full lattice QCD. The S-wave scattering lengths are calculated using L{umlt u}schers finite volume technique. We use the relativistic Fermilab formulation for the charm quark. For the light quark, we use domain-wall fermions in the valence sector and improved Kogut-Susskind sea quarks. We calculate the scattering lengths of isospin-3/2 D{pi}, D{sub s}{pi}, D{sub s}K, isospin-0 D{anti K} and isospin-1 D{anti K} channels on the lattice. For the chiral extrapolation, we use the chiral unitary approach to next-to-leading order, which at the same time allows us to give predictions for other channels. Furthermore, the hadronic molecular interpretation of the D{sub s0}*(2317) is consistent with our results. The isospin breaking decay width {Gamma}(D{sub s0}*(2317){yields}D{sub s}{pi}) in the hadronic molecular picture is updated to be (89{+-}22)keV.

title: Holographic renormalization in no-boundary quantum cosmology
abstract: Recent results of Hartle-Hawking wave functions on asymptotic dS boundaries show non-normalizability, while the bulk origin is not clear. This paper attempts to addresse this problem by studying (Kerr-)dS_3 cosmology in Einstein gravity deformed by a minimally coupled scalar field. Various saddle-point contributions exp[i(saddle-point action)] to the Hartle-Hawking wave functions are computed with mini-superspace formalism. The saddle-point actions are first obtained in the spacetime bulks by direct computation, then on the asymptotic dS boundary by holographic renormalization. It is found that the imaginary part of the saddle-point actions, as functions of scalar field deformation, are generally bounded in the bulk, but can diverge to -infty on the boundary. This can probably be a source of the scalar field-related non-normalizability of the boundary Hartle-Hawking wave functions. For Kerr-dS_3 cosmology, some saddle-point actions have imaginary parts diverging to -infty both in the bulk and on the boundary, when the boundary T^2 is stretched to infinitely long. This can be an origin of non-normalizability of the boundary Hartle-Hawking wave functions related to temperature divergence. Finally the holographic renormalization is extended to scalar-deformed dS_{d+1} (d>= 3) cosmologies for the imaginary part of the saddle-point actions. The result is tested on a 5d example, and saddle points leading to divergent contribution to the boundary Hartle-Hawking wave function are shown to exist.

title: Energy absorption problem of a brane-world black hole
abstract: We have studied the wave dynamics and the energy absorption problem for the scalar field as well as the brane-localized gravitational field in the background of a brane-world black hole. Comparing our results with the four-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole, we have observed the signature of the extra dimension in the energy absorption spectrum.

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: Nonlinear realization and Weyl scale invariant p=2 brane
abstract: The action of Weyl scale invariant p=2 brane which breaks the target super-Weyl scale symmetry in the N=1, D=4 superspace down to the lower dimensional Weyl symmetry W(1,2) is derived by the approach of nonlinear realization. The dual form action for the Weyl scale invariant supersymmetric D2 brane is also constructed. The interactions of localized matter fields on the brane with the Nambu-Goldstone fields associated with the breaking of the symmetries in the superspace and one spatial translation directions are obtained through the Cartan one-forms of the Coset structures. The covariant derivatives for the localized matter fields are also obtained by introducing Weyl gauge field as the compensating field corresponding to the local scale transformation on the brane world volume.