We prove a sharp inequality for hypersurfaces in the ndimensional Anti-deSitter-Schwarzschild manifold for general $n \ge  3$. This inequality generalizes the classical Minkowski inequality [19] for surfaces in the three dimensional Euclidean space. The proof relies on a new monotonicity formula for inverse mean curvature flow, and uses a geometric inequality established in [4].

We study the space of Killing fields on the four dimensional AdS spacetime AdS 3,1 . Two subsets S and O are identified: S (the spinor Killing fields) is constructed from imaginary Killing spinors, and O (the observer Killing fields) consists of all hypersurface orthogonal, future timelike unit Killing fields. When the cosmology constant vanishes, or in the Minkowski spacetime case, these two subsets have the same convex hull in the space of Killing fields. In presence of the cosmology constant, the convex hull of O is properly contained in that of S . This leads to two different notions of energy for an asymptotically AdS spacetime, the spinor energy and the observer energy. In [10], Chru\'sciel, Maerten and Tod proved the positivity of the spinor energy and derived important consequences among the related conserved quantities. We show that the positivity of the observer energy follows from the positivity of the spinor energy. A new notion called the "rest mass" of an asymptotically AdS spacetime is then defined by minimizing the observer energy, and is shown to be evaluated in terms of the adjoint representation of the Lie algebra of Killing fields. It is proved that the rest mass has the desirable rigidity property that characterizes the AdS spacetime.

In this article, we study the small sphere limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy defined in [18,19]. Given a point p in a spacetime N , we consider a canonical family of surfaces approaching p along its future null cone and evaluate the limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy. The evaluation relies on solving an "optimal embedding equation" whose solutions represent critical points of the quasi-local energy. For a spacetime with matter fields, the scenario is similar to that of the large sphere limit found in [7]. Namely, there is a natural solution which is a local minimum, and the limit of its quasi-local energy recovers the stress-energy tensor at p . For a vacuum spacetime, the quasi-local energy vanishes to higher order and the solution of the optimal embedding equation is more complicated. Nevertheless, we are able to show that there exists a solution which is a local minimum and that the limit of its quasi-local energy is related to the Bel-Robinson tensor. Together with earlier work [7], this completes the consistency verification of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy with all classical limits.

In [SW2], we defined a generalized mean curvature vector field on any almost Lagrangian submanifold with respect to a torsion connection on an almost K\"ahler manifold. The short time existence of the corresponding parabolic flow was established. In addition, it was shown that the flow preserves the Lagrangian condition as long as the connection satisfies an Einstein condition. In this article, we show that the canonical connection on the cotangent bundle of any Riemannian manifold is an Einstein connection (in fact, Ricci flat). The generalized mean curvature vector on any Lagrangian submanifold is related to the Lagrangian angle defined by the phase of a parallel (n, 0) form, just like the Calabi-Yau case. We also show that the corresponding Lagrangian mean curvature flow in cotangent bundles preserves the exactness and the zero Maslov class conditions. At the end, we prove a long time existence and convergence result to demonstrate the stability of the zero section of the cotangent bundle of spheres.

We study the uniqueness of minimal submanifolds and the stability of the mean curvature flow in several well-known model spaces of manifolds of special holonomy. These include the Stenzel metric on the cotangent bundle of spheres, the Calabi metric on the cotangent bundle of complex projective spaces, and the Bryant--Salamon metrics on vector bundles over certain Einstein manifolds. In particular, we show that the zero sections, as calibrated submanifolds with respect to their respective ambient metrics, are unique among compact minimal submanifolds and are dynamically stable under the mean curvature flow. The proof relies on intricate interconnections of the Ricci flatness of the ambient space and the extrinsic geometry of the calibrated submanifolds.

We propose a geometric inequality for two-dimensional spacelike surfaces in the Schwarzschild spacetime. This inequality implies the Penrose inequality for collapsing dust shells in general relativity, as proposed by Penrose and Gibbons. We prove that the inequality holds in several important cases.

A time-flat condition on spacelike 2-surfaces in spacetime is considered here. This condition is analogous to constant torsion condition for curves in three dimensional space and has been studied in [2, 4, 5, 12, 13]. In particular, any 2-surface in a static slice of a static spacetime is time-flat. In this article, we address the question in the title and prove several local and global rigidity theorems for such surfaces in the Minkowski spacetime.

We derive pointwise curvature estimates for graphical mean curvature flows in higher codimensions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such estimates without assuming smallness of first derivatives of the defining map. An immediate application is a convergence theorem of the mean curvature flow of the graph of an area decreasing map between flat Riemann surfaces.

This note revisits the inverse mean curvature flow in the 3-dimensional hyperbolic space. In particular, we show that the limiting shape is not necessarily round after scaling, thus resolving an inconsistency in the literature. The same conclusion is obtained for n-dimensional hyperbolic space as well.

The classical Minkowski formula is extended to spacelike codimension-two submanifolds in spacetimes which admit "hidden symmetry" from conformal Killing-Yano two-forms. As an application, we obtain an Alexandrov type theorem for spacelike codimension-two submanifolds in a static spherically symmetric spacetime: a codimension-two submanifold with constant normalized null expansion (null mean curvature) must lie in a shear-free (umbilical) null hypersurface. These results are generalized for higher order curvature invariants. In particular, the notion of mixed higher order mean curvature is introduced to highlight the special null geometry of the submanifold. Finally, Alexandrov type theorems are established for spacelike submanifolds with constant mixed higher order mean curvature, which are generalizations of hypersurfaces of constant Weingarten curvature in the Euclidean space.

The skeleton of a 2D shape is an important geometric structure in pattern analysis and computer vision. In this paper we study the skeleton of a 2D shape in a two-manifold M, based on a geodesic metric. We present a formal definition of the skeleton S(\Omega) for a shape V in M and show several properties that make S(\Omega) distinct from its Euclidean counterpart in R^2. We further prove that for a shape sequence {\Omega_i} that converge to a shape V in M, the mapping \Omega\rightarrow S(\Omega_i) is lower semi-continuous. A direct application of this result is that we can use a set P of sample points to approximate the boundary of a 2D shape V in M, and the Voronoi diagram of P inside \Omega\subset M gives a good approximation to the skeleton S(\Omega). Examples of skeleton computation in topography and brain morphometry are illustrated.

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We consider localized deformation for initial data sets of the Einstein field equations with the dominant energy condition. Deformation results with the weak inequality need to be handled delicately. We introduce a modified constraint operator to absorb the first order change of the metric in the dominant energy condition. By establishing the local surjectivity theorem, we can promote the dominant energy condition to the strict inequality by compactly supported variations and obtain new gluing results with the dominant energy condition. The proof of local surjectivity is a modification of the earlier work for the usual constraint map by the first named author and R. Schoen and by P. Chru\'sciel and E. Delay, with some refined analysis.

We construct SYZ mirrors of the local Calabi--Yau manifolds of type $\widetilde{A}$ by developing an equivariant SYZ theory for the toric Calabi--Yau manifolds of infinite-type. The equations for the SYZ mirrors involve the Riemann theta functions and generating functions of the open Gromov--Witten invariants. We obtain explicit formulae for the generating functions which are open analogs of the Yau--Zaslow formula in dimension $2$, and show that they have nice modular properties. We also relate the SYZ mirror pairs with mirror symmetry for the abelian varieties and hypersurfaces therein.

This paper gives a new way of constructing Landau-Ginzburg mirrors using deformation theory of Lagrangian immersions motivated by the works of Seidel, Strominger-Yau-Zaslow and Fukaya-Oh-Ohta-Ono. Moreover we construct a canonical functor from the Fukaya category to the mirror category of matrix factorizations. This functor derives homological mirror symmetry under some explicit assumptions. As an application, the construction is applied to spheres with three orbifold points to produce their quantum-corrected mirrors and derive homological mirror symmetry. Furthermore we discover an enumerative meaning of the (inverse) mirror map for elliptic curve quotients.