An almost K\"ahler structure on a symplectic manifold (N,ω) consists of a Riemannian metric g and an almost complex structure J such that the symplectic form ω satisfies ω(⋅,⋅)=g(J(⋅),⋅) . Any symplectic manifold admits an almost K\"ahler structure and we refer to (N,ω,g,J) as an almost K\"ahler manifold. In this article, we propose a natural evolution equation to investigate the deformation of Lagrangian submanifolds in almost K\"ahler manifolds. A metric and complex connection $\hn$ on TN defines a generalized mean curvature vector field along any Lagrangian submanifold M of N . We study the evolution of M along this vector field, which turns out to be a Lagrangian deformation, as long as the connection $\hn$ satisfies an Einstein condition. This can be viewed as a generalization of the classical Lagrangian mean curvature flow in K\"ahler-Einstein manifolds where the connection $\hn$ is the Levi-Civita connection of g . Our result applies to the important case of Lagrangian submanifolds in a cotangent bundle equipped with the canonical almost K\"ahler structure and to other generalization of Lagrangian mean curvature flows, such as the flow considered by Behrndt \cite{b} in K\"ahler manifolds that are almost Einstein.

The purpose of this paper is to organize some results on the local geometry of CR singular real-analytic manifolds that are images of CR manifolds via a CR map that is a diffeomorphism onto its image. We find a necessary (sufficient in dimension 2) condition for the diffeomorphism to extend to a finite holomorphic map. The multiplicity of this map is a biholomorphic invariant that is precisely the Moser invariant of the image, when it is a Bishop surface with vanishing Bishop invariant. In higher dimensions, we study Levi-flat CR singular images and we prove that the set of CR singular points must be large, and in the case of codimension 2, necessarily Levi-flat or complex. We also show that there exist real-analytic CR functions on such images that satisfy the tangential CR conditions at the singular points, yet fail to extend to holomorphic functions in a neighborhood. We provide many examples to illustrate the phenomena that arise.

Let U be a connected non-singular quasi-projective variety and f : A → U a family of abelian varieties of dimension g. Suppose that the induced map U → Ag is generically finite and there is a compactification Y with complement S = Y \U a normal crossing divisor such that Ω1 Y (log S) is nef and ωY (S) is ample with respect to U. We characterize whether U is a Shimura variety by numerical data attached to the variation of Hodge structures, rather than by properties of the map U →Ag or by the existence of CM points. More precisely, we show that f : A → U is a Kuga fibre space, if and only if two conditions hold. First, each irreducible local subsystem V of R1f∗CA is either unitary or satisfies the Arakelov equality. Second, for each factor M in the universal cover of U whose tangent bundle behaves like that of a complex ball, an iterated Kodaira-Spencer map associated with V has minimal possible length in the direction of M. If in addition f : A → U is rigid, it is a connected Shimura subvariety of Ag of Hodge type.

The diameter of a disc filling a loop in the universal covering of a Riemannian manifold M may be measured extrinsically using the distance function on the ambient space or intrinsically using the induced length metric on the disc. Correspondingly, the diameter of a van Kampen diagram
filling a word that represents the identity in a finitely presented group 􀀀 can either be measured intrinsically in the 1–skeleton of
or extrinsically in the Cayley graph of 􀀀. We construct the first examples of closed manifolds M and finitely presented groups 􀀀 = π1M for which this choice — intrinsic versus extrinsic — gives rise to qualitatively different min–diameter filling functions.

There have been many attempts to define quasilocal energy/mass for a spacelike 2-surface in a spacetime by the Hamilton–Jacobi method. The main difficulty in this approach is the subtle choice of the background configuration to be subtracted from the physical Hamiltonian. Quasilocal mass should be positive for general surfaces, but on the other hand should be zero for surfaces in the flat spacetime. In this paper, we survey the work in a series of papers [6, 25–27] in which a new notion of quasilocal mass/energy–momentum is proposed and investigated. In particular, the notion of energy observed by a 'quasilocal observer' will be discussed.