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An n dimensional minimal submanifold $\sum$  of $R^{n+m}$ is called nonparametric if $\sum$  can be represented as the graph of a vector-valued function $f : D \subset \mathbb{ R}^n \to \mathbb{R}^n$. This note provides a sufficient condition for the stability of such $\sum$ in terms of the norm of the differential $df$.

We prove a structure theorem for compact aspherical Lorentz manifolds with abundant local symmetry. If M is a compact, aspherical, real-analytic, complete Lorentz manifold such that the isometry group of the universal cover has semisimple identity component, then the local isometry orbits in M are roughly ¯bers of a¯ber bundle. A corollary is that if M has an open, dense, locally homogeneous subset, then M is locally homogeneous.

We prove flatness of complete Riemannian planes and cylinders without conjugate points under optimal conditions on the area growth.

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.