In this paper, we study smooth complex projective varieties X such that some exterior power ⋀^rT_X of the tangent bundle is strictly nef. We prove that such varieties are rationally connected. We also classify the following two cases. If T_X is strictly nef, then X isomorphic to the projective space P^n. If ⋀^2T_X is strictly nef and if X has dimension at least 3, then X is either isomorphic to P^n or a quadric Q^n.

Let (X, g) be a compact Riemannian manifold with quasi-positive Riemannian scalar curvature. If there exists a complex structure J compatible with g, then the Kodaira dimension of (X, J) is equal to −∞ and the canonical bundle KX is not pseudo-effective. We also introduce the complex Yamabe number λc(X) for compact complex manifold X, and show that if λ_c(X) is greater than 0, then κ(X) is equal to −∞; moreover, if X is also spin, then the Hirzebruch A-hat genus \hat{A}(X) is zero.

In this paper, we prove that if a compact Kähler manifold X has a smooth Hermitian metric ω such that (T_X,ω) is uniformly RC-positive, then X is projective and rationally connected. Conversely, we show that, if a projective manifold X is rationally connected, then there exists a uniformly RC-positive complex Finsler metric on T_X .