Narasihman and Ramanan proved in [Amer. J. Math. 83(1961), 563–572] that an arbitrary connection in a vector bundle over a base space B can be obtained as the pull-back (via a correctly chosen classifying map from B into the appropriate Grassmannian) of the universal connection in the universal bundle over the Grassmannian. The purpose of this paper is to relate geometric properties of the classifying map to geometric properties of the pulled-back connection. More specifically, we describe conditions on the classifying map under which the pulled-back connection: (1) is fat (in the sphere bundle), (2) has a parallel curvature tensor, and (3) induces a connection metric with nonnegative sectional curvature on the vector bundle (or positive sectional curvature on the sphere bundle).

For a smooth strongly convex Minkowski norm $F:\mathbb {R}^n \to \mathbb {R}_{\geq 0}$, we study isometries of the Hessian metric corresponding to the function $E=\tfrac 12F^2$. Under the additional assumption that F is invariant with respect to the standard action of $SO(k)\times SO(n-k)$, we prove a conjecture of Laugwitz stated in 1965. Furthermore, we describe all isometries between such Hessian metrics, and prove Landsberg Unicorn Conjecture for Finsler manifolds of dimension $n\ge 3$ such that at every point the corresponding Minkowski norm has a linear $SO(k)\times SO(n-k)$-symmetry.

We establish a one-to-one correspondence between, on the one hand, Finsler structures on the $2$-sphere with constant curvature $1$ and all geodesics closed, and on the other hand, Weyl connections on certain spindle orbifolds whose symmetric Ricci curvature is positive definite and whose geodesics are all closed. As an application of our duality result, we show that suitable holomorphic deformations of the Veronese embedding $\mathbb {CP}(a_1,a_2)\rightarrow \mathbb {CP}(a_1,(a_1+a_2)/2,a_2)$ of weighted projective spaces provide examples of Finsler $2$-spheres of constant curvature whose geodesics are all closed.

In this paper, by applying for a new approach of the so-called Tsinghua principle, we prove the nonexistence of locally conformally flat real hypersurfaces in both the m-dimensional complex quadric $Q^m$ and the complex hyperbolic quadric $Q^{m\ast }$ for $m\ge 3$.

We investigate parallel Lagrangian foliations on Kähler manifolds. On the one hand, we show that a Kähler metric admitting a parallel Lagrangian foliation must be flat. On the other hand, we give many examples of parallel Lagrangian foliations on closed flat Kähler manifolds which are not tori. These examples arise from Anosov automorphisms preserving a Kähler form.

We investigate real hypersurfaces in nonflat complex space forms attaining equality in an inequality involving the contact δ-invariant δc(2) introduced by Chen and Mihai in [3].

In this paper we obtain some new characterizations of pseudo-Einstein real hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{C}P^{2}$ and $\mathbb{C}H^{2}$. More precisely, we prove that a real hypersurface in $\mathbb{C}P^{2}$ or $\mathbb{C}H^{2}$ with constant mean curvature is generalized ${\mathcal{D}}$-Einstein with constant coefficient if and only if it is pseudo-Einstein. We prove that a real hypersurface in $\mathbb{C}P^{2}$ with constant scalar curvature is generalized ${\mathcal{D}}$-Einstein with constant coefficient if and only if it is pseudo-Einstein.

In this paper, we consider projective deformation of the geodesic system of Finsler spaces by holonomy invariant functions. Starting with a Finsler spray $S$ and a holonomy invariant function ${\mathcal{P}}$, we investigate the metrizability property of the projective deformation $\widetilde{S}=S-2\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}{\mathcal{P}}{\mathcal{C}}$. We prove that for any holonomy invariant nontrivial function ${\mathcal{P}}$ and for almost every value $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}\in \mathbb{R}$, such deformation is not Finsler metrizable. We identify the cases where such deformation can lead to a metrizable spray. In these cases, the holonomy invariant function ${\mathcal{P}}$ is necessarily one of the principal curvatures of the geodesic structure.

We study the long-standing problem of the existence of non-Berwaldian Landsberg spaces from the perspective of conformal transformations. We calculate the Berwald and Landsberg tensors in terms of the T-tensor and show that there are Landsberg spaces with nonvanishing T-tensor. We give a necessary condition for a Landsberg space to be Berwaldian. We find conditions under which the Landsberg spaces cannot be Berwaldian and give examples of ($y$-local) non-Berwaldian Landsberg spaces.

A Vaisman manifold is a special kind of locally conformally Kähler manifold, which is closely related to a Sasaki manifold. In this paper, we show a basic structure theorem of simply connected homogeneous Sasaki and Vaisman manifolds of unimodular Lie groups, up to holomorphic isometry. For the case of unimodular Lie groups, we obtain a complete classification of simply connected Sasaki and Vaisman unimodular Lie groups, up to modification.

Paraconformal or GL(2, ℝ) geometry on an n-dimensional manifold M is defined by a field of rational normal curves of degree n – 1 in the projectivised cotangent bundle ℙT*M. Such geometry is known to arise on solution spaces of ODEs with vanishing Wünschmann (Doubrov–Wilczynski) invariants. In this paper we discuss yet another natural source of GL(2, ℝ) structures, namely dispersionless integrable hierarchies of PDEs such as the dispersionless Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (dKP) hierarchy. In the latter context, GL(2, ℝ) structures coincide with the characteristic variety (principal symbol) of the hierarchy.

Dispersionless hierarchies provide explicit examples of particularly interesting classes of involutive GL(2, ℝ) structures studied in the literature. Thus, we obtain torsion-free GL(2, ℝ) structures of Bryant [5] that appeared in the context of exotic holonomy in dimension four, as well as totally geodesic GL(2, ℝ) structures of Krynski [33]. The latter possess a compatible affine connection (with torsion) and a two-parameter family of totally geodesic α-manifolds (coming from the dispersionless Lax equations), which makes them a natural generalisation of the Einstein–Weyl geometry.

Our main result states that involutive GL(2, ℝ) structures are governed by a dispersionless integrable system whose general local solution depends on 2n – 4 arbitrary functions of 3 variables. This establishes integrability of the system of Wünschmann conditions.

A new method for classifying naturally reductive spaces is presented. This method relies on a new construction and the structure theory of naturally reductive spaces recently developed by the author. This method is applied to obtain the classification of all naturally reductive spaces in dimension 7 and 8.

We classify up to automorphisms all left-invariant non-Einstein solutions to the Einstein–Maxwell equations on four-dimensional Lie algebras.

In this paper, Berger spheres are regarded as geodesic spheres with sufficiently big radii in a complex projective space. We characterize such real hypersurfaces by investigating their geodesics and contact structures from the viewpoint of submanifold theory.

Following an original idea of Palmas, Palomo and Romero, recently developed in [12], we study codimension two spacelike submanifolds contained in the light cone of the Lorentz-Minkowski spacetime through an approach which allows us to compute their extrinsic and intrinsic geometries in terms of a single function u. As the first application of our approach, we classify the totally umbilical ones. For codimension two compact spacelike submanifolds into the light cone, we show that they are conformally diffeomorphic to the round sphere and that they are given by an explicit embedding written in terms of u. In the last part of the paper, we consider the case where the submanifold is (marginally, weakly) trapped. In particular, we derive some non-existence results for weakly trapped submanifolds into the light cone.

We first provide a necessary and sufficient condition for a ruled real hypersurface in a nonflat complex space form to have constant mean curvature in terms of integral curves of the characteristic vector field on it. This yields a characterization of minimal ruled real hypersurfaces by circles. We next characterize the homogeneous minimal ruled real hypersurface in a complex hyperbolic space by using the notion of strong congruency of curves.

We study non-totally geodesic Lagrangian submanifolds of the nearly Kähler 𝕊3 × 𝕊3 for which the projection on the first component is nowhere of maximal rank. We show that this property can be expressed in terms of the so-called angle functions and that such Lagrangian submanifolds are closely related to minimal surfaces in 𝕊3. Indeed, starting from an arbitrary minimal surface, we can construct locally a large family of such Lagrangian immersions, including one exceptional example. We also show that locally all such Lagrangian submanifolds can be obtained in this way.

In this paper, we study a class of homogeneous Finsler metrics of vanishing $S$-curvature on a $(4n+3)$-dimensional sphere. We find a second order ordinary differential equation that characterizes Einstein metrics with constant Ricci curvature $1$ in this class. Using this equation we show that there are infinitely many homogeneous Einstein metrics on $S^{4n+3}$ of constant Ricci curvature $1$ and vanishing $S$-curvature. They contain the canonical metric on $S^{4n+3}$ of constant sectional curvature $1$ and the Einstein metric of non-constant sectional curvature given by Jensen in 1973.

We extend T. Y. Thomas’s approach to projective structures, over the complex analytic category, by involving the $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}$-connections. This way, a better control of projective flatness is obtained and, consequently, we have, for example, the following application: if the twistor space of a quaternionic manifold $P$ is endowed with a complex projective structure then $P$ can be locally identified, through quaternionic diffeomorphisms, with the quaternionic projective space.

We describe the structure of the Ricci tensor on a locally homogeneous Lorentzian gradient Ricci soliton. In the non-steady case, we show that the soliton is rigid in dimensions 3 and 4. In the steady case we give a complete classification in dimension 3.