We study harmonic maps from an admissible flat simplicial complex to a non-positively curved Riemannian manifold. Our main regularity theorem is that these maps are C1, at the interfaces of the top-dimensional simplices in addition to satisfying a balancing condition. If we assume that the domain is a 2-complex,then these maps are C1. As an application, we show that the regularity, the balancing condition and a Bochner formula lead to rigidity and vanishing theorems for harmonic maps. Furthermore, we give an explicit relationship between our techniques and those obtained via combinatorial methods.

The Cauchy problem for the homogeneous real/complexMongeAmp`ere equation (HRMA/HCMA) arises from the initial value problem for geodesics in the space of K¨ahler metrics equipped with the Mabuchi metric. This Cauchy problem is believed to be ill-posed and a basic problem is to characterize initial data of (weak) solutions which exist up to time T . In this article, we use a quantization method to construct a subsolution of the HCMA on a general projective variety, and we conjecture that it solves the equation for as long as the unique solution exists. The subsolution, called the “quantum analytic continuation potential,” is obtained by (i) Toeplitz quantizing the Hamiltonian flow determined by the Cauchy data, (ii) analytically continuing the quantization, and (iii) taking a certain logarithmic classical limit. We then prove that in the case of torus invariant metrics (where the HCMA reduces to the HRMA) the quantum analytic continuation potential coincides with the well-known Legendre transform potential, and hence solves the equation as long as it is smooth. In the sequel [29], it is proved that the Legendre transform potential ceases to solve the HCMA once it ceases to be smooth. The results here and in the sequels in particular characterize the initial data of smooth geodesic rays.

We prove that a constrained Willmore immersion of a 2–torus into the conformal 4–sphere S4 is of “finite type”, that is, has a spectral curve of finite genus, or of “holomorphic type” which means that it is super conformal or Euclidean minimal with planar ends in R4 = S4\{1} for some point 1 2 S4 at infinity. This implies that all constrained Willmore tori in S4 can be constructed rather explicitly by methods of complex algebraic geometry. The proof uses quaternionic holomorphic geometry in combination with integrable systems methods similar to those of Hitchin’s approach [19] to the study of harmonic tori in S3.

We study three-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative scalar curvature. We find new topological obstruction for such manifolds. Our method turns out to be useful in studying the positive mass conjecture in general relativity.

We consider two natural problems arising in geometry which are equivalent to the local solvability of specific equations of Monge- Amp`ere type. These two problems are: the local isometric embedding problem for two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, and the problem of locally prescribed Gaussian curvature for surfaces in R3. We prove a general local existence result for a large class of Monge-Amp`ere equations in the plane, and obtain as corollaries the existence of regular solutions to both problems, in the case that the Gaussian curvature vanishes to arbitrary finite order on a single smooth curve.