We present an ansatz which makes the equations of motion more tractable for the simplest of Vasiliev’s four-dimensional higher spin theories. The ansatz is similar to axial gauge in electromagnetism. We present a broad class of solutions in the gauge where the spatial connection vanishes, and we discuss the lift of one of these solutions to a full spacetime solution via a gauge transformation.

Quantum-disordering a discrete-symmetry breaking state by condensing domain-walls can lead to a trivial symmetric insulator state. In this work, we show that if we bind a 1D representation of the symmetry (such as a charge) to the intersection point of several domain walls, condensing such modified domain-walls can lead to a non-trivial symmetry-protected topological (SPT) state. This result is obtained by showing that the modified domain-wall condensed state has a non-trivial SPT invariant -- the symmetry-twist dependent partition function. We propose two different kinds of field theories that can describe the above mentioned SPT states. The first one is a Ginzburg-Landau-type non-linear sigma model theory, but with an additional multi-kink domain-wall topological term. Such theory has an anomalous Uk(1) symmetry but an anomaly-free ZkN symmetry. The second one is a gauge theory, which is beyond Abelian Chern-Simons/BF gauge theories. We argue that the two field theories are equivalent at low energies. After coupling to the symmetry twists, both theories produce the desired SPT invariant.

A two-dimensional chiral conformal field theory can be viewed mathematically as the representation theory of its chiral algebra, a vertex operator algebra. Vertex operator algebras are especially well suited for studying logarithmic conformal field theory (in which correlation functions have logarithmic singularities arising from non-semisimple modules for the chiral algebra) because of the logarithmic tensor category theory of Huang, Lepowsky, and Zhang. In this paper, we study not-necessarily-semisimple or rigid braided tensor categories C of modules for the fixed-point vertex operator subalgebra V^G of a vertex operator (super)algebra V with finite automorphism group G. The main results are that every V^G-module in C with a unital and associative V-action is a direct sum of g-twisted V-modules for possibly several g∈G, that the category of all such twisted V-modules is a braided G-crossed (super)category, and that the G-equivariantization of this braided G-crossed (super)category is braided tensor equivalent to the original category C of V^G-modules. This generalizes results of Kirillov and Müger proved using rigidity and semisimplicity. We also apply the main results to the orbifold rationality problem: whether V^G is strongly rational if V is strongly rational. We show that V^G is indeed strongly rational if V is strongly rational, G is any finite automorphism group, and V^G is C_2-cofinite.

Mirror Symmetry, Picard-Fuchs equations and instanton corrected Yukawa couplings are discussed within the framework of toric geometry. It allows to establish mirror symmetry of Calabi-Yau spaces for which the mirror manifold had been unavailable in previous constructions. Mirror maps and Yukawa couplings are explicitly given for several examples with two and three moduli.

We consider the Cauchy problem for the massless scalar wave equation in the Kerr geometry for smooth initial data compactly supported outside the event horizon. We prove that the solutions decay in time in <i>L</i>  _loc. The proof is based on a representation of the solution as an infinite sum over the angular momentum modes, each of which is an integral of the energy variable <i></i> on the real line. This integral representation involves solutions of the radial and angular ODEs which arise in the separation of variables.