In this paper we construct a new time-periodic solution of the vacuum Einsteins field equations, this solution possesses physical singularities, i.e., the norm of the solutions Riemann curvature tensor takes the infinity at some points. We show that this solution is intrinsically time-periodic and describes a time-periodic universe with the time-periodic physical singularity. By calculating the Weyl scalars of this solution, we investigate new physical phenomena and analyze new singularities for this universal model.

We define a notion of stability for chiral ring of four dimensional N= 1 theory by introducing test chiral rings and generalized a maximization. We conjecture that a chiral ring is the chiral ring of a superconformal field theory if and only if it is stable. We then study N= 1 field theory derived from D3 branes probing a three-fold singularity X, and show that the K stability which implies the existence of Ricci-flat conic metric on X is equivalent to the stability of chiral ring of the corresponding field theory.

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 study the degeneration and the gluing of Kuranishi structures in Gromov-Witten theory under a symplectic cut. This leads us to a degeneration axiom and a gluing axiom for open Gromov-Witten invariants. They provide then a route to the construction of virtual fundamental chains via specialization. Comments on the equivalence of the degeneration formula of closed Gromov-Witten invariants by Li-Ruan/Li versus Ionel-Parker are given in the Appendix.

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.