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We discuss a few examples in 2+1 dimensions and 1+1 dimensions supporting a recent conjecture concerning the relation between the Planck scale and the coupling strength of a non-gravitional interaction, unlike those examples in 3+1 dimensions, we do not have to resort to exotic physics such as small black holes. However, the result concerning these low dimensional examples is a direct consequence of the 3+1 dimensional conjecture.

String theory contains solutions with SL(2,R)_R x U(1)_L-invariant warped AdS3 (WAdS3) factors arising as continuous deformations of ordinary AdS3 factors. We propose that some of these are holographically dual to the IR limits of nonlocal dipole-deformed 2D D-brane gauge theories, referred to as "dipole CFTs". Neither the bulk nor boundary theories are currently well-understood, and consequences of the proposed duality for both sides is investigated. The bulk entropy-area law suggests that dipole CFTs have (at large N) a high-energy density of states which does not depend on the deformation parameter. Putting the boundary theory on a spatial circle leads to closed timelike curves in the bulk, suggesting a relation of the latter to dipole-type nonlocality.

In this continuation of [L-Y1],[LLSY],[L-Y2], and [L-Y3](arXiv: 0709.1515 [math. AG], arXiv: 0809.2121 [math. AG], arXiv: 0901.0342 [math. AG], arXiv: 0907.0268 [math. AG]), we study D-branes in a target-space with a fixed B -field background B along the line of the Polchinski-Grothendieck Ansatz, explained in [L-Y1] and further extended in the current work. We focus first on the gauge-field-twist effect of B -field to the Chan-Paton module on D-branes. Basic properties of the moduli space of D-branes, as morphisms from Azumaya schemes with a twisted fundamental module to B , are given. For holomorphic D-strings, we prove a valuation-criterion property of this moduli space. The setting is then extended to take into account also the deformation-quantization-type noncommutative geometry effect of B -field to both the D-brane world-volume and the superstring target-space (-time) B . This brings the notion of twisted B -modules that are realizable as twisted locally-free coherent modules with a flat connection into the study. We use this to realize the notion of both the classical and the quantum spectral covers as morphisms from Azumaya schemes with a fundamental module (with a flat connection in the latter case) in a very special situation. The 3rd theme (subtitled" Sharp vs. Polchinski-Grothendieck") of Sec. 2.2 is to be read with the work [Sh3](arXiv: hep-th/0102197) of Sharp while Sec. 5.2 (subtitled less appropriately" Dijkgraaf-Holland-Sukowski-Vafa vs. Polchinski-Grothendieck") is to be read with the related sections in [DHSV](arXiv: 0709.4446 [hep-th]) and [DHS](arXiv: 0810.4157 [hep-th]) of Dijkgraaf, Hollands, Sukowski, and Vafa.

The original motivation for solving of the Einstein equation is to understand space-time in the absence of matter; see the essay by Tod in this volume for an overview of the mathematics of general relativity. The equation governs the manner in which space-time is inuenced by the sole force of gravity. As is well known, singularities such as black holes can occur. The study of the vacuum Einstein equations is a difficult problem in nonlinear hyperbolic systems; see the essay by Christodoulou in this volume. Complete space-times with nontrivial gravitational radiation are not well understood.