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Some new differentiable sphere theorems are obtained via the Ricci flow and stable currents. We prove that if Mn is a compact manifold whose normalized scalar curvature and sectional curvature satisfy the pointwise pinching condition R0 > nKmax, where n 2 ( 1 4 , 1) is an explicit positive constant, then M is diffeomorphic to a spherical space form. We also provide a partial answer to Yau’s conjecture on the pinching theorem. Moreover, we prove that if Mn(n  3) is a compact manifold whose (n . 2)-th Ricci curvature and normalized scalar curvature satisfy the pointwise condition Ric(n.2) min > n(n .2)R0, where n 2 ( 1 4 , 1) is an explicit positive constant, then M is diffeomorphic to a spherical space form. We then extend the sphere theorems above to submanifolds in a Riemannian manifold. Finally we give a classification of submanifolds with weakly pinched curvatures, which improves the differentiable pinching theorems due to Andrews, Baker, and the authors.

We consider manifolds with conic singularities that are isometric to Rn outside a compact set. Under natural geometric assumptions on the cone points, we prove the existence of a logarithmic resonance-free region for the cut-off resolvent. The estimate also applies to the exterior domains of non-trapping polygons via a doubling process. The proof of the resolvent estimate relies on the propagation of singularities theorems of Melrose and the second author [23] to establish a “very weak” Huygens’ principle, which may be of independent interest. As applications of the estimate, we obtain a exponential local energy decay and a resonance wave expansion in odd dimensions, as well as a lossless local smoothing estimate for the Schr¨odinger equation.

We show that the interior of the convex core of a quasifuchsian punctured-torus group admits an ideal decomposition (usually an infinite triangulation) which is canonical in two very different senses: in a combinatorial sense via the pleating invariants, and in a geometric sense via an Epstein-Penner convex hull construction in Minkowski space. This result re-proves the Pleating Lamination Theorem for quasifuchsian punctured-torus groups, and extends to all punctured-torus groups if a strong version of the Pleating Lamination Conjecture is true.

If 𝑈:[0,+∞[×𝑀 is a uniformly continuous viscosity solution of the evolution Hamilton-Jacobi equation ∂_𝑡𝑈+𝐻(𝑥,∂_𝑥 𝑈)=0, where 𝑀 is a not necessarily compact manifold, and 𝐻 is a Tonelli Hamiltonian, we prove the set Σ(𝑈), of points in ]0,+∞[×𝑀 where 𝑈 is not differentiable, is locally contractible. Moreover, we study the homotopy type of Σ(𝑈). We also give an application to the singularities of the distance function to a closed subset of a complete Riemannian manifold.