Let X1 and X2 be two compact connected strongly pseudoconvex embeddable Cauchy-Riemann (CR) manifolds of dimensions 2m − 1 and 2n − 1 in Cm+1 and Cn+1, respectively. We introduce the Thom- Sebastiani sum X = X1⊕X2 which is a new compact connected strongly pseudoconvex embeddable CR manifold of dimension 2m+2n+1 in Cm+n+2. Thus the set of all codimension 3 strongly pseudoconvex compact connected CR manifolds in Cn+1 for all n > 2 forms a semigroup. X is said to be an irreducible element in this semigroup if X cannot be written in the form X1 ⊕X2. It is a natural question to determine when X is an irreducible CR manifold. We use Kohn-Rossi cohomology groups to give a necessary condition of the above question. Explicitly, we show that if X = X1 ⊕ X2, then the Kohn-Rossi cohomology of the X is the product of those Kohn-Rossi cohomology coming from X1 and X2 provided that X2 admits a transversal holomorphic S1-action.

We describe a natural decomposition of a normal complex surface singularity ($X$, 0) into its “thick” and “thin” parts. The former is essentially metrically conical, while the latter shrinks rapidly in thickness as it approaches the origin. The thin part is empty if and only if the singularity is metrically conical; the link of the singularity is then Seifert fibered. In general the thin part will not be empty, in which case it always carries essential topology. Our decomposition has some analogy with the Margulis thick-thin decomposition for a negatively curved manifold. However, the geometric behavior is very different; for example, often most of the topology of a normal surface singularity is concentrated in the thin parts.

We study Nakai-Moishezon type question and Donaldson’s “tamed to compatible” question for almost complex structures on rational four manifolds. By extending Taubes’ subvarieties-currentform technique to J-nef genus 0 classes, we give affirmative answers of these two questions for all tamed almost complex structures on S^2 bundles over S^2 as well as for many geometrically interesting tamed almost complex structures on other rational four manifolds, including the del Pezzo ones.

We discuss applications of an improvement on the Riemann mapping theorem which replaces the unit disc by another “double quadrature domain,” i.e., a domain that is a quadrature domain with respect to both area and boundary arc length measure. Unlike the classic Riemann mapping theorem, the improved theorem allows the original domain to be finitely connected, and if the original domain has nice boundary, the biholomorphic map can be taken to be close to the identity, and consequently, the double quadrature domain is close to the original domain. We explore some of the parallels between this new theorem and the classic theorem, and some of the similarities between the unit disc and the double quadrature domains that arise here. The new results shed light on the complexity of many of the objects of potential theory in multiply connected domains.

In [8], Hitchin proved that a compact K/ihlerian twistor space is in fact a projective algebraic manifold. Moreover, it is the twistor space associated to either the Euclidean 4-sphere S 4 or the complex projective plane CF 2 with Fubini-Study metric. The twistor spaces are 3 and the flag of lines in~ p2 respectively. In [10, 11], the author proved the existence of self-dual metric with positive scalar curvature on the connected-sums of two or three copies of the complex projective planes. Their twistor spaces are Moish6zon spaces. In fact, they are the small resolution of the intersection of two quadrics in~ ps with four nodes and the double covering of CP 3 branched along a quartic with thirteen nodes. Recently, the joint work of Donaldson and Friedman [3] produced a general procedure to construct new twistor spaces and hence self-dual manifolds. In this article, we shall follow the spirit of Hitchin's work and prove the