We consider surfaces of geometric genus 3 with the property that their transcendental cohomology splits into 3 pieces, each piece coming from a K3 surface. For certain families of surfaces with this property, we can show there is a similar splitting on the level of Chow groups (and Chow motives).

We study the set of connected components of certain unions of affine Deligne-Lusztig varieties arising from the study of Shimura varieties. We determine the set of connected components for basic $\s $-conjugacy classes. As an application, we verify the Axioms in\cite {HR} for certain PEL type Shimura varieties. We also show that for any nonbasic $\s $-conjugacy class in a residually split group, the set of connected components is" controlled" by the set of straight elements associated to the $\s $-conjugacy class, together with the obstruction from the corresponding Levi subgroup. Combined with\cite {Zhou}, this allows one to verify in the residually split case, the description of the mod- p isogeny classes on Shimura varieties conjectured by Langland and Rapoport. Along the way, we determine the Picard group of the Witt vector affine Grassmannian of\cite {BS} and\cite {Zhu} which is of independent interest.

In this paper, we study the zero loci of local systems of the form \delta\Pi , where \delta\Pi is the period sheaf of the universal family of CY hypersurfaces in a suitable ambient space \delta\Pi , and \delta\Pi is a given differential operator on the space of sections \delta\Pi . Using earlier results of three of the authors and their collaborators, we give several different descriptions of the zero locus of \delta\Pi . As applications, we prove that the locus is algebraic and in some cases, non-empty. We also give an explicit way to compute the polynomial defining equations of the locus in some cases. This description gives rise to a natural stratification to the zero locus.

We develop a new technique to study ranks of multiplication maps for linear series via limit linear series and degenerations to chains of elliptic curves. We prove an elementary criterion and apply it to proving cases of the Maximal Rank Conjecture. We give a new proof of the case of quadrics, and also treat several families in the case of cubics. Our proofs do not require restrictions on direction of approach, so we recover new information on the locus in the moduli space of curves on which the maximal rank condition fails.

In this paper, we first establish an L^ 2-type Dolbeault isomorphism for logarithmic differential forms by Hrmander's L^ 2-estimates. By using this isomorphism and the construction of smooth Hermitian metrics, we obtain a number of new vanishing theorems for sheaves of logarithmic differential forms on compact Khler manifolds with simple normal crossing divisors, which generalize several classical vanishing theorems, including Norimatsu's vanishing theorem, Gibrau's vanishing theorem, Le Potier's vanishing theorem and a version of the Kawamata-Viehweg vanishing theorem.