We prove that an algebraic subvariety of a Shimura variety is weakly special if and only if analytic components of its preimage in the symmetric space are algebraic. We also prove an analogous result in the case of abelian varieties.

Let G/K be a noncompact symmetric space, Gc/K its compact dual, 𝔤=𝔨⊕𝔭 the Cartan decomposition of the Lie algebra 𝔤 of G, 𝔞 a maximal abelian subspace of 𝔭, H be an element of 𝔞, a=exp (H) , and ac =exp (iH) . In this paper, we prove that if for some positive integer r, νrac is absolutely continuous with respect to the Haar measure on Gc, then νra is absolutely continuous with respect to the left Haar measure on G, where νac (respectively νa) is the K-bi-invariant orbital measure supported on the double coset KacK (respectively KaK). We also generalize a result of Gupta and Hare [‘Singular dichotomy for orbital measures on complex groups’, Boll. Unione Mat. Ital. (9) III (2010), 409–419] to general noncompact symmetric spaces and transfer many of their results from compact symmetric spaces to their dual noncompact symmetric spaces.

The asymptotic stability of two types of invariant solutions under a curvature flow in the whole plane is studied. First, by extending the work of others, we prove that the stationary line with nonzero slope will attract the graphical curves which surround it. Then a similar property is obtained for the grim reaper.

Let (P,Y ) be a bundle gerbe over a fibre bundle Y →M. We show that if M is simply connected and the fibres of Y →M are connected and finite-dimensional, then the Dixmier–Douady class of (P,Y ) is torsion. This corrects and extends an earlier result of the first author.

We review and then combine two aspects of the theory of bundle gerbes. The first concerns lifting bundle gerbes and connections on those, developed by Murray and by Gomi. Lifting gerbes represent obstructions against extending the structure group of a principal bundle. The second is the transgression of gerbes to loop spaces, initiated by Brylinski and McLaughlin and with recent contributions of the author. Combining these two aspects, we obtain a new formulation of lifting problems in terms of geometry on the loop space. Most prominently, our formulation explains the relation between (complex) spin structures on a Riemannian manifold and orientations of its loop space.

We study closed Einstein–Weyl structures on compact K-contact, Sasakian and cosymplectic manifolds. In particular we prove that compact Sasakian and cosymplectic manifolds endowed with a closed Einstein–Weyl structure are η-Einstein.

A compact contact Ricci soliton (whose potential vector field is the Reeb vector field) is Sasaki–Einstein. A compact contact homogeneous manifold with a Ricci soliton is Sasaki–Einstein.

We prove that the Calabi–Yau equation can be solved on the Kodaira–Thurston manifold for all given T2-invariant volume forms. This provides support for Donaldson's conjecture that Yau's theorem has an extension to symplectic 4-manifolds with compatible but non-integrable almost complex structures.

On a Fano manifold M we study the supremum of the possible t such that there is a Kähler metric ω∈c1(M) with Ricci curvature bounded below by t. This is shown to be the same as the maximum existence time of Aubin’s continuity path for finding Kähler–Einstein metrics. We show that on P2 blown up in one point this supremum is 6/7, and we give upper bounds for other manifolds.

We characterize quasi-Kähler manifolds whose curvature tensor associated to the canonical Hermitian connection satisfies the first Bianchi identity. This condition is related to the third Gray identity and in the almost-Kähler case implies the integrability. Our main tool is the existence of generalized holomorphic frames previously introduced by the second author. By using such frames we also give a simpler and shorter proof of a theorem of Goldberg. Furthermore, we study almost-Hermitian structures having the curvature tensor associated to the canonical Hermitian connection equal to zero. We show some explicit examples of quasi-Kähler structures on the Iwasawa manifold having the Hermitian curvature vanishing and the Riemann curvature tensor satisfying the second Gray identity.

We show that on the Hilbert scheme of n points on ℂ2, the hyperkähler metric constructed by Nakajima via hyperkähler reduction is the quasi-asymptotically locally Euclidean (QALE) metric constructed by Joyce.

We prove that all g-natural contact metric structures on a two-point homogeneous space are homogeneous contact. The converse is also proved for metrics of Kaluza–Klein type. We also show that if (M,g) is an Einstein manifold and is a Riemannian g-natural metric on T1M of Kaluza–Klein type, then is H-contact if and only if (M,g) is 2-stein, so proving that the main result of Chun et al. [‘H-contact unit tangent sphere bundles of Einstein manifolds’, Q. J. Math., to appear. DOI: 10.1093/qmath/hap025] is invariant under a two-parameter deformation of the standard contact metric structure on T1M. Moreover, we completely characterize Riemannian manifolds admitting two distinct H-contact g-natural contact metric structures, with associated metric of Kaluza–Klein type.

The characterization of a surface by means of the circles contained in it has been studied by S. Izuyima, A. Takiyama, K. Ogiu, R. Takagi and N. Takeuchi, among others. The aim of this paper is to show some characterizations of a pseudosphere in Lorentz 3-space, assuming the existence of Lorentzian and Euclidean circles.

We study homogeneous Kähler structures on a non-compact Hermitian symmetric space and their lifts to homogeneous Sasakian structures on the total space of a principal line bundle over it, and we analyse the case of the complex hyperbolic space.

Let L → X be a positive line bundle on a compact complex manifold X. For compact submanifolds Y, S of X and a holomorphic submersion Y → S with compact fibre, we study curvature of a natural connection on certain line bundles on S.

We give a characterization of a minimal real hypersurface with respect to the condition for the sectional curvature.

The classical variational analysis of curvature energy functionals, acting on spaces of curves of a Riemannian manifold, is extremely complicated, and the procedure usually can not be completely developed under such a degree of generality. Sometimes this difficulty may be overcome by focusing on specific actions in real space forms. In this note, we restrict ourselves to quadratic Lagrangian energies acting on the space of closed curves of the 2-sphere. We solve the Euler–Lagrange equation and show that there exists a two-parameter family of closed critical curves. We also discuss the stability of the circular critical points. Since, even for this class of energies, the complete variational analysis is quite involved, we use instead a numerical approach to provide a useful method of visualization of relevant aspects concerning uniqueness, stability and explicit representation of the closed critical curves.

In this paper, we introduce a new algebraic notion, weakly symmetric Lie algebras, to give an algebraic description of an interesting class of homogeneous Riemann-Finsler spaces, weakly symmetric Finsler spaces. Using this new definition, we are able to give a classification of weakly symmetric Finsler spaces with dimensions 2 and 3. Finally, we show that all the non-Riemannian reversible weakly symmetric Finsler spaces we find are non-Berwaldian and with vanishing $\text{S}$ -curvature. This means that reversible non-Berwaldian Finsler spaces with vanishing $\text{S}$ -curvature may exist at large. Hence the generalized volume comparison theorems due to $\text{Z}$ . Shen are valid for a rather large class of Finsler spaces.

Let $\left( X,\,g \right)$ be a complete noncompact Kähler manifold, of dimension $n\,\ge \,2$ , with positive Ricci curvature and of standard type (see the definition below). N. Mok proved that $X$ can be compactified, i.e., $X$ is biholomorphic to a quasi-projective variety. The aim of this paper is to prove that the ${{L}^{2}}$ holomorphic sections of the line bundle $K_{X}^{-q}$ and the volume form of the metric $g$ have no essential singularities near the divisor at infinity. As a consequence we obtain a comparison between the volume forms of the Kähler metric $g$ and of the Fubini-Study metric induced on $X$ . In the case of ${{\dim}_{\mathbb{C}}}\,X\,=\,2$ , we establish a relation between the number of components of the divisor $D$ and the dimension of the ${{H}^{i}}(\bar{X},\,\Omega \frac{1}{X}(\log \,D))$ .