Topological quantization of self-dual Chern-Simons vortices on Riemann surfaces
The self-duality equations of Chern-Simons Higgs theory in a background curved spacetime are studied by making use of the U(1) gauge potential decomposition theory and $\phi$-mapping method. The special form of the gauge potential decomposition is obtained directly from the first of the self-duality equations. Using this decomposition, a rigorous proof of magnetic flux quantization in background curved spacetime is given and the unit magnetic flux in curved spacetime is also found . Furthermore, the precise self-dual vortex equation with topological term is obtained, in which the topological term has always been ignored.

title: Thermodynamic geometry of black hole in the deformed Hořava-Lifshitz gravity
abstract: We investigate the thermodynamic geometry and phase transition of Kehagias-Sfetsos black hole in the deformed Hořava-Lifshitz gravity with coupling constant λ = 1. The phase transition in black-hole thermodynamics is thought to be associated with the divergence of the capacities. And the structures of these divergent points are studied. We also find that the thermodynamic curvature produced by the Ruppeiner metric is positive definite for all r+ > r− and is divergent at η2 = 0 corresponding to the divergent points of CΦ and CT . These results suggest that the microstructure of the black hole has an effective repulsive interaction, which is very similar to the ideal gas of fermions. These may shed some light on the microstructure of the black hole.

title: Non-relativistic Josephson junction from holography
abstract: A bstractWe construct a Josephson junction in non-relativistic case with a Lifshitz geometry as the dual gravity. We investigate the effect of the Lifshitz scaling in comparison with its relativistic counterpart. The standard sinusoidal relation between the current and the phase difference is found for various Lifshitz scalings characterised by the dynamical critical exponent. We also find the exponential decreasing relation between the condensate of the scalar operator within the barrier at zero current and the width of the weak link, as well as the relation between the critical current and the width. Nevertheless, the coherence lengths obtained from two exponential decreasing relations generically have discrepancies for non-relativistic dual.

title: Fermions coupled with self-dual vortex background on a torus
abstract: We study fermionic zero modes in the self-dual vortex background on an extra torus in 5+1 dimensions. It is shown that the self-dual vortex arises from the symmetric phase and the asymmetric phase of Higgs field in the context of generalized Abelian Higgs model. Then we analyze the Dirac operator on the extra two-dimensional space and the effective Lagrangian of four-dimensional fermion with the vortex background. Solving the Dirac equation, we obtain the fermionic zero modes in two simple cases. It is shown that the vortex background contributes a phase shift to the fermionic zero modes, and this phase is determined by the topology of the extra dimensions, it can be observed through Aharonov-Bohm effect. For the anti-vortex case, the corresponding zero modes present a singular behavior at the zero point of Higgs field. While for the vacuum one, they are non-singular.

title: Fermionic zero modes in gauge and gravity backgrounds on T-2
abstract: Here we study fermionic zero modes in gauge and gravity backgrounds taking a two-dimensional compact manifold T-2 as extra dimensions. The result is that there exist massless Dirac fermions which have normalizable zero modes under quite general assumptions about these backgrounds on the bulk. Several special cases of gauge background on the torus are discussed and some simple fermionic zero modes axe obtained.

title: Competition between s-wave order and d-wave order in holographic superconductors
abstract: A bstractWe study competition between s-wave order and d-wave order through two holographic superconductor models. We find that once the coexisting phase appears, it is always thermodynamically favored, and that the coexistence phase is narrow and one condensate tends to kill the other. The phase diagram is constructed for each model in terms of temperature and the ratio of charges of two orders. We further compare the behaviors of some thermodynamic quantities, and discuss the different aspects and identical ones between two models.

title: Curvaton dynamics and the non-linearity parameters in the curvaton model
abstract: We investigate the curvaton dynamics and the non-linearity parameters in the curvaton model with a potential slightly deviating from the quadratic form in detail. The non-linearity parameter gNL will show up due to the curvaton self-interaction. We also point out that the leading order of the non-quadratic term in the curvaton potential can be negative, for example in the axion-type curvaton model. If a large positive gNL is detected, the axion-type curvaton model will be preferred.

title: Intervening BLR Clouds' Effects on Optical/UV Spectrum
abstract: Recent x-ray observations of Mrk 766 suggest that broad emission line region clouds cross our line of sight and produce variable x-ray absorption. Here we investigate what optical/ultraviolet spectroscopic features would be produced by such "Intervening BLR Clouds" (IBC) crossing our line of sight to the accretion disk, the source of the optical/UV continuum. Although the emission spectrum produced by intervening clouds is identical to the standard BLR model, they may produce absorption features on the optical or UV continuum. Single clouds will have little effect on the optical/UV spectrum because BLR clouds are likely to be much smaller than the accretion disk. This is unlike the X-ray case, where the radiation source is considerably smaller. However, an ensemble of intervening clouds will produce spectroscopic features in the FUV including a strong depression between the Lyman limit and Ly{\alpha}. The amount of the depression will indicate the line-of-sight covering factor of clouds, an unknown quantity that is important for the ionization of the intergalactic medium and the energy budget of AGN. Comparison with observations suggests that the SED of Mrk 766 may be affected by intervening BLR clouds and IBC may exist in most of AGNs.

title: Independent measurement of the neutrino mixing angle theta(13) via neutron capture on hydrogen at Daya Bay
abstract: A new measurement of the θ_(13) mixing angle has been obtained at the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment via the detection of inverse beta decays tagged by neutron capture on hydrogen. The antineutrino events for hydrogen capture are distinct from those for gadolinium capture with largely different systematic uncertainties, allowing a determination independent of the gadolinium-capture result and an improvement on the precision of the θ_(13) measurement. With a 217-day antineutrino data set obtained with six antineutrino detectors and from six 2.9 GW_(th) reactors, the rate deficit observed at the far hall is interpreted as sin^2 2θ_(13) = 0.083±0.018 in the three-flavor oscillation model. When combined with the gadolinium-capture result from Daya Bay, we obtain sin^2 2θ_(13) = 0.089±0.008 as the final result for the six-antineutrino-detector configuration of the Daya Bay experiment.

title: Cosmological Perturbations in Horava-Lifshitz Gravity
abstract: We study cosmological perturbations in Horava-Lifshitz Gravity, a recently proposed potentially ultraviolet-complete quantum theory of gravity. We consider scalar metric fluctuations about a homogeneous and isotropic space-time. Starting from the most general metric, we work out the complete second order action for the perturbations. We then make use of the residual gauge invariance and of the constraint equations to reduce the number of dynamical degrees of freedom. At first glance, it appears that there is an extra scalar metric degree of freedom. However, introducing the Sasaki-Mukhanov variable, the combination of spatial metric fluctuation and matter inhomogeneity for which the action in general relativity has canonical form, we find that this variable has the standard time derivative term in the second order action, and that the extra degree of freedom is nondynamical. The limit lambda -> 1 is well behaved, unlike what is obtained when expanding about Minkowski space-time. Thus, there is no strong coupling problem for Horava-Lifshitz gravity when considering cosmological solutions. We also compute the spectrum of cosmological perturbations. If the potential in the action is taken to be of "detailed balance" form, we find a cancellation of the highest derivative terms in the action for the curvature fluctuations. As a consequence, the initial spectrum of perturbations will not be scale-invariant in a general space-time background, in contrast to what happens when considering Horava-Lifshitz matter leaving the gravitational sector unperturbed. However, if we break the detailed balance condition, then the initial spectrum of curvature fluctuations is indeed scale-invariant on ultraviolet scales. As an application, we consider fluctuations in an inflationary background and draw connections with the "trans-Planckian problem" for cosmological perturbations. In the special case in which the potential term in the action is of detailed balance form and in which lambda = 1, the equation of motion for cosmological perturbations in the far UV takes the same form as in general relativity. However, in general the equation of motion is characterized by a modified dispersion relation.

title: A Model-Independent Photometric Redshift Estimator
abstract: We derive a simple empirical photometric redshift estimator using a training set of galaxies with multiband photometry and measured redshifts in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). This estimator is model-independent; it does not use spectral templates. The dispersion between the estimated redshifts and the spectroscopically measured ones is small; the dispersions range from $\sigma_z\simeq 0.03$ to 0.1 for $z\la 2$ galaxies, and from $\sigma_z\simeq 0.14$ to 0.25 for $z\ga 2$ galaxies. The predictions provided by our empirical redshift estimator agree well with recently measured galaxy redshifts. We illustrate how our empirical redshift estimator can be modified to include flat spectrum galaxies with $1.4\la z \la 2$.