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Three dimensional fracton phases are new type of phases featuring exotic excitations called fractons. They are gapped point-like excitations constrained to move in sub-dimensional space. In this talk, I will present the gapped fracton topological order discovered in exact solvable models and gapless fracton phase described by U(1) symmetric tensor gauge theories. Their relation with ordinary topological ordered phase would be discussed in detail. Particularly, the fracton topological order exhibited in an exact solvable model called X-cube model can be constructed by coupling toric code layers. And it can also be obtained from a particular rank-2 symmetric tensor gauge theory called scalar charge theory by Higgs mechanism and partial confinement transition.

After the detection of black hole and neutron star binary mergers at LIGO/Virgo, gravitational wave becomes a new observational channel that we didn't have access to years ago.

It is an interesting question to ask what kind of new particle physics this channel can probe.

To answer this question, one needs to fill the gap between the scales of the astrophysical processes and the fundamental structures.

In this talk, I will demonstrate a few ways of extracting particle physics information directly from binary merger events of neutron stars and boson stars, and using this information to constrain well motivated dark sectors, including dark gauge boson and axion like particles.

An outline of future directions will also be discussed.

Line Intensity Mapping has emerged as a powerful tool to probe the large-scale structure across redshift, with the potential to shed light on dark energy at low redshift and the cosmic dawn and reionization process at high redshift.  Multiple spectral lines, including the redshifted 21cm, CO, [CII], H-alpha, and Lyman-alpha emissions, are promising tracers in the intensity mapping regime, with several experiments on-going or in the planning.  I will discuss results from current pilot programs, prospects for the upcoming TIME experiment, and the outlook of future space missions such as SPHEREx.  I will illustrate how the use of cross-correlation between multiple line intensity maps will enable unique and insightful measurements, revealing for example the tomography of reionization and the physics of multiple phases of the interstellar medium across redshift.

Recent progress in determining scattering phase shifts, and hence, resonance properties from lattice QCD in finite volumes is presented.

The relationship between finite-volume stationary-state energies and the two-particle scattering K-matrix is discussed.

Details of the Monte Carlo computations of the finite-volume two-particle energies are described.

Results for pion-pion, kaon-pion, and nucleon-pion scattering are presented.

The large j asymptotic behavior of 4-dimensional spin foam amplitude is investigated for the extended spin foam model (Conrady-Hnybida extension) on a simplicial complex. We study the most general situation in which timelike tetrahedra with timelike triangles are taken into account. The large j asymptotic behavior is determined by critical configurations of the amplitude. We identify the critical configurations that correspond to the Lorentzian simplicial geometries with timelike tetrahedra and triangles. Their contributions to the amplitude are phases asymptotically, whose exponents equal to Regge action of gravity. The amplitude also contains critical configurations corresponding to non-degenerate split signature 4-simplices and degenerate vector geometries.  

Searching for a proper set of order parameters which distinguishes different phases of matter sits in the heart of condensed matter physics. In this talk, I discuss topological invariants as (non-local) order parameters for symmetry protected topological (SPT) phases of fermions in the presence of time-reversal symmetry. It turns out that topological invariants provide a natural definition for the partial transpose of density matrices. The partial transpose can then be used to define an entanglement measure (analog of entanglement negativity) for mixed states of fermions. I will show that this quantity captures the mixed state entanglement in fermionic SPTs as well as in a system of free fermions with a Fermi surface.

Conventional equations of state suggest that in complete gravitational collapse a singular state of matter with infinite density could be reached finally to a black hole, the characteristic feature of which is its apparent horizon, where light rays are first trapped. The loss of information to the outside world this implies gives rise to serious difficulties with well-established principles of quantum mechanics and statistical physics.

The formation of a gravitational vacuum condensate star with a p=−ρ interior solves these problems and remarkably, actually follows from Schwarzschild's second paper over a century ago. The surface tension of the condensate star surface is the difference of equal and opposite surface gravities between the exterior and interior Schwarzschild solutions. The First Law is then recognized as a purely mechanical classical relation at zero temperature and zero entropy. The Schwarzschild time of such a non-singular gravitational condensate star is a global time, fully consistent with unitary time evolution in quantum theory.

The advent of BH imaging by the EHT and Gravitational Wave Astronomy with LIGO should allow for observational tests of the gravastar hypothesis, particularly in the discrete surface modes of oscillation and GW resonances or “echoes,” which may be observable by advanced LIGO and successor GW detectors.