No abstract uploaded!

We prove that the number of critical points of a Li–Tam Green’s function on a complete open Riemannian surface of finite type admits a topological upper bound, given by the first Betti number of the surface. In higher dimensions, we show that there are no topological upper bounds on the number of critical points by constructing, for each nonnegative integer N, a Riemannian manifold diffeomorphic to Rn (n > 3) whose minimal Green’s function has at least N non-degenerate critical points. Variations on the method of proof of the latter result yield contractible n-manifolds whose minimal Green’s functions have level sets diffeomorphic to any fixed codimension 1 compact submanifold of R^n.

Given a Riemannian manifold and a closed submanifold, we find a geodesic segment with free boundary on the given submanifold. This is a corollary of the min–max theory which we develop in this article for the free boundary variational problem. In particular, we develop a modified Birkhoff curve shortening process to achieve a strong “Colding–Minicozzi” type min–max approximation result.

We show that any star-shaped convex hypersurface with constantWeingarten curvature in the deSitter-Schwarzschildmanifold is a sphere of symmetry.Moreover, we study an isoperimetric problem for bounded domains in the doubled Schwarzschild manifold. We prove the existence of an isoperimetric surface for any value of the enclosed volume, and we completely describe the isoperimetric surfaces for very large enclosed volume. This complements work in H. Bray’s thesis, where isoperimetric surfaces homologous to the horizon are studied.

Let G be a connected Lie group. We show that all characteristic classes of G are bounded—when viewed in the cohomology of the classifying space of the group G with the discrete topology—if and only if the derived group of the radical of G is simply connected in its Lie group topology. We also give equivalent conditions in terms of stable commutator length and distortion.