We discuss a sharp lower bound for the first positive eigenvalue of the sublaplacian on a closed, strictly pseudoconvex pseudohermitian manifold of dimension 2m + 1 ≥ 5. We prove that the equality holds iff the manifold is equivalent to the CR sphere up to a scaling. For this purpose, we establish an Obata-type theorem in CR geometry that characterizes the CR sphere in terms of a nonzero function satisfying a certain overdetermined system. Similar results are proved in dimension 3 under an additional condition.

We study the spectral geometric properties of the scalar Laplace–Beltrami operator associated to the Weil–Petersson metric $g_{WP}$ on $\mathcal{M}_{\gamma}$ , the Riemann moduli space of surfaces of genus  $\gamma>1$. This space has a singular compactification with respect to $g_{WP}$, and this metric has crossing cusp-edge singularities along a finite collection of simple normal crossing divisors. We prove first that the scalar Laplacian is essentially self-adjoint, which then implies that its spectrum is discrete.

We study the limit of quasilocal energy defined in [7] and [8] for a family of spacelike 2-surfaces approaching null infinity of an asymptotically flat spacetime. It is shown that Lorentzian symmetry is recovered and an energy-momentum 4-vector is obtained. In particular, the result is consistent with the Bondi–Sachs energy-momentum at a retarded time. The quasilocal mass in [7] and [8] is defined by minimizing quasilocal energy among admissible isometric embeddings and observers. The solvability of the Euler-Lagrange equation for this variational problem is also discussed in both the asymptotically flat and asymptotically null cases. Assuming analyticity, the equation can be solved and the solution is locally minimizing in all orders. In particular, this produces an optimal reference hypersurface in the Minkowski space for the spatial or null exterior region of an asymptotically flat spacetime.

In this article we discuss the geometry of moduli spaces of (1) flat bundles over special Lagrangian submanifolds and (2) deformed Hermitian-Yang-Mills bundles over complex submanifolds in Calabi-Yau manifolds. These moduli spaces reflect the geometry of the Calabi-Yau itself like a mirror. Strominger, Yau and Zaslow conjecture that the mirror Calabi-Yau manifold is such a moduli space and they argue that the mirror symmetry duality is a Fourier-Mukai transformation. We review various aspects of the mirror symmetry conjecture and discuss a geometric approach in proving it. The existence of rigid Calabi-Yau manifolds poses a serious challenge to the conjecture. The proposed mirror partners for them are higher dimensional generalized Calabi-Yau manifolds. For example, the mirror partner for a certain K3 surface is a cubic fourfold and its Fano variety of lines is birational to the Hilbert scheme of two points on the K3. This hyperk¨ahler manifold can be interpreted as the SYZ mirror of the K3 by considering singular special Lagrangian tori. We also compare the geometries between a CY and its associated generalized CY. In particular we present a new construction of Lagrangian submanifolds.

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