We consider the asymptotics of the Turaev-Viro and the Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants of a hyperbolic $3$-manifold, evaluated at the root of unity $exp(2\pi\sqrt{-1}/r)$ instead of the standard $exp(\pi\sqrt{-1}/r)$. We present evidence that, as $r$ tends to $\infty$, these invariants grow exponentially with growth rates respectively given by the hyperbolic and the complex volume of the manifold. This reveals an asymptotic behavior that is different from that of Witten's Asymptotic Expansion Conjecture, which predicts polynomial growth of these invariants when evaluated at the standard root of unity. This new phenomenon suggests that the Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants may have a geometric interpretation other than the original one via $SU(2)$ Chern-Simons gauge theory.

We study Thurston’s Lipschitz and curve metrics, as well as the arc metric on the Teichmüller space of one-hold tori equipped with complete hyperbolic metrics with boundary holonomy of fixed length. We construct natural Lipschitz maps between two surfaces equipped with such hyperbolic metrics that generalize Thurston’s stretch maps and prove the following: (1) On the Teichmüller space of the torus with one boundary component, the Lipschitz and the curve metrics coincide and define a geodesic metric on this space. (2) On the same space, the arc and the curve metrics coincide when the length of the boundary component is ≤4arcsinh(1), but differ when the boundary length is large. We further apply our stretch map generalization to construct novel Thurston geodesics on the Teichmüller spaces of closed hyperbolic surfaces, and use these geodesics to show that the sum-symmetrization of the Thurston metric fails to exhibit Gromov hyperbolicity.

Heegaard diagrams on the boundary of a handlebody are studied from the dynamics systems point of view. A relationship between the strongly irreducible condition of CassonGordan and the Masur's domain of discontinuity for the action of the handlebody group is established.

There are two important statements regarding the Trautman-Bondi mass at null infinity: one is the positivity, and the other is the Bondi mass loss formula, which are both global in nature. The positivity of the quasi-local mass can potentially lead to a local description at null infinity. This is confirmed for the Vaidya spacetime in this note. We study the Wang-Yau quasi-local mass on surfaces of fixed size at the null infinity of the Vaidya spacetime. The optimal embedding equation is solved explicitly and the quasi-local mass is evaluated in terms of the mass aspect function of the Vaidya spacetime.

In this paper, the first in a series, we study the deformed Hermitian-Yang-Mills (dHYM) equation from the variational point of view as an infinite dimensional GIT problem. The dHYM equation is mirror to the special Lagrangian equation, and our infinite dimensional GIT problem is mirror to Thomas' GIT picture for special Lagrangians. This gives rise to infinite dimensional manifold $\mathcal{H}$ closely related to Solomon's space of positive Lagrangians. In the hypercritical phase case we prove the existence of smooth approximate geodesics, and weak geodesics with $C^{1,\alpha}$ regularity. This is accomplished by proving sharp with respect to scale estimates for the Lagrangian phase operator on collapsing manifolds with boundary. As an application of our techniques we give a simplified proof of Chen's theorem on the existence of $C^{1,\alpha}$ geodesics in the space of K\"ahler metrics. In two follow up papers, these results will be used to examine algebraic obstructions to the existence of solutions to dHYM and special Lagrangians in Landau-Ginzburg models.