The weak mean curvature is lower semicontinuous under weak convergence of varifolds, that is, if ¹k ! ¹ weakly as varifolds then k ~H¹ kLp(¹)· lim infk!1 k ~H¹k kLp(¹k). In contrast, if Tk ! T weakly as integral currents, then ¹T may not have a locally bounded ¯rst variation even if k ~H¹Tk kL1(¹k) is bounded. In 1999, Luigi Ambrosio asked the question whether lower semi- continuity of the weak mean curvature is true when T is assumed to be smooth. This was proved in [AmMa03] for p > n = dim T in Rn+1 using results from [Sch04]. Here we prove this in any dimension and codimension down to the desired exponent p = 2. For p = n = 2, this corresponds to the Willmore functional. In a forthcoming joint work [RoSch06], main steps of the pre- sent article are used to prove a modi¯ed conjecture of De Giorgi that the sum of the area and the Willmore functional is the ¡-limit of a di®use Landau-Ginzburg approximation.

We consider a regularization method for mean curvature flow of a submanifold of arbitrary codimension in the Euclidean space,through higher order equations. We prove that the regularized problems converge to the mean curvature flow for all times before the first singularity.

Let Y be a non-singular projective manifold with an ample canonical sheaf, and let V be a Q-variation of Hodge structures of weight one on Y with Higgs bundle E1,0 ⊕ E0,1, coming from a family of Abelian varieties. If Y is a curve the Arakelov inequality says that the slopes satisfy μ(E1,0) − μ(E0,1) ≤ μ(­1 Y ). We prove a similar inequality in the higher dimensional case. If the latter is an equality, and if the discriminant of E1,0 or the one of E0,1 is zero, one hopes that Y is a Shimura variety, and V a uniformizing variation of Hodge structures. This is verified, in case the universal covering of Y does not contain factors of rank> 1. Part of the results extend to variations of Hodge structures over quasi-projective manifolds U.

Let (M, g) be a complete 3-dimensional asymptotically flat manifold with everywhere positive scalar curvature. We prove that, given a compact subset K  M, all volume preserving stable constant mean curvature surfaces of sufficiently large area will avoid K. This complements the results of G. Huisken and S.-T. Yau [17] and of J. Qing and G. Tian [26] on the uniqueness of large volume preserving stable constant mean curvature spheres in initial data sets that are asymptotically close to Schwarzschild with mass m > 0. The analysis in [17] and [26] takes place in the asymptotic regime of M. Here we adapt ideas from the minimal surface proof of the positive mass theorem [32] by R. Schoen and S.-T. Yau and develop geometric properties of volume preserving stable constant mean curvature surfaces to handle surfaces that run through the part of M that is far from Euclidean.

Given a hyperbolic 3–manifold with torus boundary, we bound the change in volume under a Dehn filling where all slopes have length at least 2π. This result is applied to give explicit diagrammatic bounds on the volumes of many knots and links, as well as their Dehn fillings and branched covers. Finally, we use this result to bound the volumes of knots in terms of the coefficients of their Jones polynomials.