In this article we define new flows on the Hitchin components for PGL(V). Special examples of these flows are associated to simple closed curves on the surface and give generalized twist flows. Other examples, so called eruption flows, are associated to pair of pants in S and capture new phenomena which are not present in the case when n=2. We determine a global coordinate system on the Hitchin component. Using the computation of the Goldman symplectic form on the Hitchin component, that is developed by two of the authors in a companion paper to this article (Sun and Zhang in The Goldman symplectic form on the PGL(V)-Hitchin component, 2017. arXiv:1709.03589), this gives a global Darboux coordinate system on the Hitchin component.

In this paper we prove that given a point p ∈ Mn, where Mn is a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension n, the length of a shortest geodesic loop lp(Mn) at this point is bounded above by 2nd, where d is the diameter of Mn. Moreover, we show that on a closed simply connected Riemannian manifold Mn with a nontrivial second homotopy group there either exist at least three geodesic loops of length less than or equal to 2d at each point of Mn, or the length of a shortest closed geodesic on Mn is bounded from above by 4d.

We prove the factoriality of a nodal hypersurface in P4 of degree d that has at most 2(d ¡ 1)2=3 singular points, and we prove the factoriality of a double cover of P3 branched over a nodal surface of degree 2r having less than (2r ¡ 1)r singular points.

In this paper, we consider the heat ‡flow for p-pseudoharmonic maps from a closed Sasakian manifold into a compact Riemannian manifold. We prove global existence and asymptotic convergence of the solution for the p-pseudoharmonic map heat ‡flow provided that the sectional curvature of the target manifold is nonpositive. Moreover, without the curvature assumption on the target manifold, we obtain global existence and asymptotic convergence of the p-pseudoharmonic map heat fl‡ow as well when its initial p-energy is sufficiently small.

We study minimal hypersurfaces in manifolds of non-negative Ricci curvature, Euclidean volume growth and quadratic curvature decay at infinity. By comparison with capped spherical cones, we identify a precise borderline for the Ricci curvature decay. Above this value, no complete area-minimizing hypersurfaces exist. Below this value, in contrast, we construct examples.