We give conditions which imply that a complete noncompact manifold with quadratic curvature decay has finite topological type. In particular, we find links between the topology of a manifold with quadratic curvature decay and some properties of the asymptotic cones of such a manifold.

In this paper we consider the dynamical system involved by the Ricci operator on the space of Kähler metrics of a Fano manifold. Nadel has defined an iteration scheme given by the Ricci operator and asked whether it has some non-trivial periodic points. First, we prove that no such periodic points can exist. We define the inverse of the Ricci operator and consider the dynamical behaviour of its iterates for a Fano Kähler–Einstein manifold. Then we define a finite-dimensional procedure to give an approximation of Kähler–Einstein metrics using this iterative procedure and apply it on ℂℙ2 blown up in three points.

By using the pseudo-Hermitian connection (or Tanaka–Webster connection) , we construct the parametric equations of Legendre pseudo-Hermitian circles (whose -geodesic curvature is constant and -geodesic torsion is zero) in S3. In fact, it is realized as a Legendre curve satisfying the -Jacobi equation for the -geodesic vector field along it.

Let N be a complete Riemannian manifold isometrically immersed into a Hadamard manifold M. We show that the immersion cannot be bounded if the mean curvature of the immersed manifold is small compared with the curvature of M and the Laplacian of the distance function on N grows at most linearly. The latter condition is satisfied if the Ricci curvature of N does not approach too fast. The main tool in the proof is a modification of Yau’s maximum principle.

In this paper we give a nonexistence theorem for real hypersurfaces in complex two-plane Grassmannians G2(ℂm+2) with anti-commuting shape operator.

We discuss the isoperimetric problem in planes with density. In particular, we examine planes with generalized curvature zero. We solve the isoperimetric problem on the plane with density ex, as well as on the plane with density rp for p<0. The Appendix provides a proof by Robert Bryant that the Gauss plane has a unique closed geodesic.

In thispaper we find many families in the product space ℍ2×ℝ of complete embedded, simply connected, minimal and surfaces with constant mean curvature H such that |H|≤1/2. We study complete surfaces invariant either by parabolic or by hyperbolic screw motions. We study the notion of isometric associate immersions. We exhibit an explicit formula for a Scherk-type minimal surface. We give a one-parameter family of entire vertical graphs of mean curvature 1/2. We prove a generalized Bour lemma that can be applied to ℍ2×ℝ,𝕊2×ℝ and to Heisenberg’s space to produce a family of screw motion surfaces isometric to a given one.

We derive upper Gaussian bounds for the heat kernel on complete, noncompact locally symmetric spaces M=Γ∖X with nonpositive curvature. Our bounds contain the Poincaré series of the discrete group Γ and therefore we also provide upper bounds for this series.

Given a Lie n-algebra, we provide an explicit construction of its integrating Lie n-group. This extends work done by Getzler in the case of nilpotent -algebras. When applied to an ordinary Lie algebra, our construction yields the simplicial classifying space of the corresponding simply connected Lie group. In the case of the string Lie 2-algebra of Baez and Crans, we obtain the simplicial nerve of their model of the string group.

We describe a contact metric manifold whose Reeb vector field belongs to the (κ,μ)-nullity distribution as a bi-Legendrian manifold and we study its canonical bi-Legendrian structure. Then we characterize contact metric (κ,μ)-spaces in terms of a canonical connection which can be naturally defined on them.

The equivalence between contact and Pansu differentiable maps on Carnot groups is established within the class of maps that are C1 with respect to the ambient Euclidean structure.

The problem of finding geodesics that avoid certain obstacles in negatively curved manifolds has been studied in different situations. In this note we give a generalization of the unclouding theorem of J. Parkkonen and F. Paulin: there is a constant s0=1.534 such that for any Hadamard manifold M with curvature ≤−1 and for any family of disjoint balls or horoballs {Ca}a∈A and for any point p∈M−⋃ a∈ACa if we shrink these balls uniformly by s0 one can always find a geodesic ray emanating from p that avoids the shrunk balls. It will be shown that in the theorem above one can replace the balls by arbitrary convex sets.

We construct a Kähler structure (which we call a generalised Kähler cone) on an open subset of the cone of a strongly pseudo-convex CR manifold endowed with a one-parameter family of compatible Sasaki structures. We determine those generalised Kähler cones which are Bochner-flat and we study their local geometry. We prove that any Bochner-flat Kähler manifold of complex dimension bigger than two is locally isomorphic to a generalised Kähler cone.

This paper deals with 3-forms on six-dimensionalmanifolds, the first dimension where the classification of 3-forms is not trivial. It includes three classes of multisymplectic 3-forms. We study the class which is closely related to almost complex structures.

The energy of a unit vector field X on a closed Riemannian manifold M is defined as the energy of the section into T1M determined by X. For odd-dimensional spheres, the energy functional has an infimum for each dimension 2k+1 which is not attained by any non-singular vector field for k>1. For k=1, Hopf vector fields are the unique minima. In this paper we show that for any closed Riemannian manifold, the energy of a frame defined on the manifold, possibly except on a finite subset, admits a lower bound in terms of the total scalar curvature of the manifold. In particular, for odd-dimensional spheres this lower bound is attained by a family of frames defined on the sphere minus one point and consisting of vector fields parallel along geodesics.

Let (M,g) be a non-compact and complete Riemannian manifold with minimal horospheres and infinite injectivity radius. In this paper we prove that bounded functions on (M,g) satisfying the mean-value property are constant. We thus extend a result of Ranjan and Shah [‘Harmonic manifolds with minimal horospheres’, J. Geom. Anal.12(4) (2002), 683–694] where they proved a similar result for bounded harmonic functions on harmonic manifolds with minimal horospheres.

We develop the transversal harmonic theory for a transversally symplectic flow on a manifold and establish the transversal hard Lefschetz theorem. Our main results extend the cases for a contact manifold (H. Kitahara and H. K. Pak, ‘A note on harmonic forms on a compact manifold’, Kyungpook Math. J.43 (2003), 1–10) and for an almost cosymplectic manifold (R. Ibanez, ‘Harmonic cohomology classes of almost cosymplectic manifolds’, Michigan Math. J.44 (1997), 183–199). For the point foliation these are the results obtained by Brylinski (‘A differential complex for Poisson manifold’, J. Differential Geom.28 (1988), 93–114), Haller (‘Harmonic cohomology of symplectic manifolds’, Adv. Math.180 (2003), 87–103), Mathieu (‘Harmonic cohomology classes of symplectic manifolds’, Comment. Math. Helv.70 (1995), 1–9) and Yan (‘Hodge structure on symplectic manifolds’, Adv. Math.120 (1996), 143–154).

In this paper, we prove that there are no warped product proper semi-slant submanifolds such that the spheric submanifold of a warped product is a proper slant. But we show by means of examples the existence of warped product semi-slant submanifolds such that the totally geodesic submanifold of a warped product is a proper slant submanifold in locally Riemannian product manifolds.

We discuss the determination of the mean normal measure of a stationary random set Z ⊂ ℝd by taking measurements at the intersections of Z with k-dimensional planes. We show that mean normal measures of sections with vertical planes determine the mean normal measure of Z if k ≥ 3 or if k = 2 and an additional mild assumption holds. The mean normal measures of finitely many flat sections are not sufficient for this purpose. On the other hand, a discrete mean normal measure can be verified (i.e. an a priori guess can be confirmed or discarded) using mean normal measures of intersections with m suitably chosen planes when m ≥ ⌊d / k⌋ + 1. This even holds for almost all m-tuples of k-dimensional planes are viable for verification. A consistent estimator for the mean normal measure of Z, based on stereological measurements in vertical sections, is also presented.

We present a superfield formulation of the chiral de Rham complex (CDR), as introduced by Malikov, Schechtman and Vaintrob in 1999, in the setting of a general smooth manifold, and use it to endow CDR with superconformal structures of geometric origin. Given a Riemannian metric, we construct an N=1 structure on CDR (action of the N=1 super-Virasoro, or Neveu–Schwarz, algebra). If the metric is Kähler, and the manifold Ricci-flat, this is augmented to an N=2 structure. Finally, if the manifold is hyperkähler, we obtain an N=4 structure. The superconformal structures are constructed directly from the Levi-Civita connection. These structures provide an analog for CDR of the extended supersymmetries of nonlinear σ-models.