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.

Given a hyperbolic surface with geodesic boundary S, the lengths of a maximal system of disjoint simple geodesic arcs on S that start and end at @S perpendicularly are coordinates on the Teichm¨uller space T (S). We express the Weil-Petersson Poisson structure of T (S) in this system of coordinates, and we prove that it limits pointwise to the piecewise-linear Poisson structure defined by Kontsevich on the arc complex of S. At the same time, we obtain a formula for the first-order variation of the distance between two closed geodesics under Fenchel-Nielsen deformation.

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.

We show that it is possible to perturb arbitrary vacuum asymptotically flat spacetimes to new ones having exactly the same energy and linear momentum, but with center of mass and angular momentum equal to any preassigned values measured with respect to a fixed affine frame at infinity. This is in contrast to the axisymmetric situation where a bound on the angular momentum by the mass has been shown to hold for black hole solutions. Our construction involves changing the solution at the linear level in a shell near infinity, and perturbing to impose the vacuum constraint equations. The procedure involves the perturbation correction of an approximate solution which is given explicitly.

We prove the mean curvature flow of the graph of a symplectomorphism between Riemann surfaces converges smoothly as time approaches infinity.