We consider a class of two-dimensional Schrdinger operator with a singular interaction of the type and a fixed strength supported by an infinite family of concentric, equidistantly spaced circles, and discuss what happens below the essential spectrum when the system is amended by an AharonovBohm flux in the center. It is shown that if , there is a critical value such that the discrete spectrum has an accumulation point when , while for the number of eigenvalues is at most finite, in particular, the discrete spectrum is empty for any fixed and small enough.

We study the limit of quasilocal energy defined in [7] and [8] for a family of spacelike 2-surfaces approaching null infinity of an asymptotically flat spacetime. It is shown that Lorentzian symmetry is recovered and an energy-momentum 4-vector is obtained. In particular, the result is consistent with the Bondi-Sachs energy-momentum at a retarded time. The quasilocal mass in [7] and [8] is defined by minimizing quasilocal energy among admissible isometric embeddings and observers. The solvability of the Euler-Lagrange equation for this variational problem is also discussed in both the asymptotically flat and asymptotically null cases.

A large class of symmetry-protected topological phases (SPT) in boson / spin systems have been recently predicted by the group cohomology theory. In this work, we consider SPT states at least with charge symmetry (U(1) or ZN) or spin Sz rotation symmetry (U(1) or ZN) in 2D, 3D, and the surface of 3D. If both are U(1), we apply external electromagnetic field / `spin gauge field' to study the charge / spin response. For the SPT examples we consider (i.e. Uc(1)⋊ZT2, Us(1)×ZT2, Uc(1)×[Us(1)⋊Z2]; subscripts c and s are short for charge and spin; ZT2 and Z2 are time-reversal symmetry and π-rotation about Sy, respectively), many variants of Witten effect in the 3D SPT bulk and various versions of anomalous surface quantum Hall effect are defined and systematically investigated. If charge or spin symmetry reduces to ZN by considering charge-N or spin-N condensate, instead of the linear response approach, we gauge the charge/spin symmetry, leading to a dynamical gauge theory with some remaining global symmetry. The 3D dynamical gauge theory describes a symmetry-enriched topological phase (SET), i.e. a topologically ordered state with global symmetry which admits nontrivial ground state degeneracy depending on spatial manifold topology. For the SPT examples we consider, the corresponding SET states are described by dynamical topological gauge theory with topological BF term and axionic Θ-term in 3D bulk. And the surface of SET is described by the chiral boson theory with quantum anomaly.

We describe the applications of localization methods, in particular the functorial localization formula, in the proofs of several conjectures from string theory. Functorial localization formula pushes the computations on complicated moduli spaces to simple moduli spaces. It is a key technique in the proof of the general mirror formulas, the proof of the Hori-Vafa formulas for explicit expressions of basic hypergeometric series of homogeneous manifolds, the proof of the Mario-Vafa formula, its generalizations to two partition analogue. We will also discuss our development of the mathematical theory of topological vertex and simple localization proofs of the ELSV formula and Witten conjecture.

We review first Azumaya geometry and D-branes in the realm of algebraic geometry along the line of Polchinski-Grothendieck Ansatz from our earlier work and then use it as background to introduce Azumaya C^{\infty} -manifolds with a fundamental module and morphisms therefrom to a projective complex manifold. This gives us a description of D-branes of A-type. Donaldson's picture of Lagrangian and special Lagrangian submanifolds as selected from the zero-locus of a moment map on a related space of maps can be merged into the setting. As a pedagogical toy model, we study D-branes of A-type in a Calabi-Yau torus. Simple as it is, it reveals several features of D-branes, including their assembling/disassembling. The 4th theme of Sec. 2.4, the 2nd theme of Sec. 4.2, and Sec. 4.3 are to be read respectively with Gmez-Sharpe (arXiv: hep-th/0008150), Donagi-Katz-Sharpe (arXiv: hep-th/0309270), and Denef (arXiv: hep-th/0107152). Some string-theoretical remarks are given at the end of each section.