We investigate systems of self-propelled particles with alignment interaction. Compared to previous work (Degond and Motsch, Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci. 18:1193–1215, 2008a; Frouvelle, Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci., 2012), the force acting on the particles is not normalized, and this modification gives rise to phase transitions from disordered states at low density to aligned states at high densities. This model is the space-inhomogeneous extension of (Frouvelle and Liu, Dynamics in a kinetic model of oriented particles with phase transition, 2012), in which the existence and stability of the equilibrium states were investigated. When the density is lower than a threshold value, the dynamics is described by a nonlinear diffusion equation. By contrast, when the density is larger than this threshold value, the dynamics is described by a similar hydrodynamic model for self-alignment interactions as derived in (Degond and Motsch, Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci. 18:1193–1215, 2008a; Frouvelle, Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci., 2012). However, the modified normalization of the force gives rise to different convection speeds, and the resulting model may lose its hyperbolicity in some regions of the state space.

Published in 1999, Christodoulou proved that the naked singularities of a self-gravitating scalar field are not stable in spherical symmetry and therefore the cosmic censorship conjecture is true in this context. The original proof is by contradiction and sharp estimates are obtained strictly depending on spherical symmetry. In this paper, appropriate a priori estimates for the solution are obtained. These estimates are more relaxed but sufficient for giving another robust argument in proving the instability, in particular not by contradiction. In a companion paper, we are able to prove certain instability theorems of the spherically symmetric naked singularities of a scalar field under gravitational perturbations without symmetries. The argument given in this paper plays a central role.

The boundary of symmetry-protected topological states (SPTs) can harbor new quantum anomaly phenomena. In this work, we characterize the bosonic anomalies introduced by the 1+1D non-onsite-symmetric gapless edge modes of 2+1D bulk bosonic SPTs with a generic finite Abelian group symmetry (isomorphic to G=∏iZNi=ZN1×ZN2×ZN3×...). We demonstrate that some classes of SPTs (termed "Type II") trap fractional quantum numbers (such as fractional ZN charges) at the 0D kink of the symmetry-breaking domain walls; while some classes of SPTs (termed "Type III") have degenerate zero energy modes (carrying the projective representation protected by the unbroken part of the symmetry), either near the 0D kink of a symmetry-breaking domain wall, or on a symmetry-preserving 1D system dimensionally reduced from a thin 2D tube with a monodromy defect 1D line embedded. More generally, the energy spectrum and conformal dimensions of gapless edge modes under an external gauge flux insertion (or twisted by a branch cut, i.e., a monodromy defect line) through the 1D ring can distinguish many SPT classes. We provide a manifest correspondence from the physical phenomena, the induced fractional quantum number and the zero energy mode degeneracy, to the mathematical concept of cocycles that appears in the group cohomology classification of SPTs, thus achieving a concrete physical materialization of the cocycles. The aforementioned edge properties are formulated in terms of a long wavelength continuum field theory involving scalar chiral bosons, as well as in terms of Matrix Product Operators and discrete quantum lattice models. Our lattice approach yields a regularization with anomalous non-onsite symmetry for the field theory description. We also formulate some bosonic anomalies in terms of the Goldstone-Wilczek formula.

We provide an explicit desingularization and study the resulting fiber geometry of elliptically fibered four-folds defined by Weierstrass models admitting a split ilde {A} _4 singularity over a divisor of the discriminant locus. Such varieties are used to geometrically engineer SU (5) grand unified theories in F-theory. The desingularization is given by a small resolution of singularities. The ilde {A} _4 fiber naturally appears after resolving the singularities in codimension-one in the base. The remaining higher codimension singularities are then beautifully described by a four-dimensional affine binomial variety which leads to six different small resolutions of the elliptically fibered four-fold. These six small resolutions define distinct four-folds connected to each other by a network of flop transitions forming a dihedral group. The location of these exotic fibers in the base is mapped to conifold points of the three-folds that defines the type IIB

We describe the counting of BPS states of Type II on K3 by relating the supersymmetric cycles of genus <i>g</i> to the number of rational curves with <i>g</i> double points on K3. The generating function for the number of such curves is the left-moving partition function of the bosonic string.