We introduce a gauge-theoretic integer valued lift of the Rohlin invariant of a smooth 4-manifold X with the homology of S1×S3. The invariant has two terms: one is a count of solutions to the Seiberg–Witten equations on X, and the other is essentially the index of the Dirac operator on a non-compact manifold with end modeled on the infinite cyclic cover of X. Each term is metric (and perturbation) dependent, and we show that these dependencies cancel as the metric and perturbation vary in a generic 1-parameter family.

We consider Kobayashi geodesics in the moduli space of abelian varieties Ag, that is, algebraic curves that are totally geodesic submanifolds for the Kobayashi metric. We show that Kobayashi geodesics can be characterized as those curves whose logarithmic tangent bundle splits as a subbundle of the logarithmic tangent bundle of Ag. Both Shimura curves and Teichm¨uller curves are examples of Kobayashi geodesics, but there are other examples. We show moreover that non-compact Kobayashi geodesics always map to the locus of real multiplication and that the Q-irreducibility of the induced variation of Hodge structures implies that they are defined over a number field.

In 1976, the author (see the open problem section in [3]) asked the following question: if p is a function defined on i? 3, what is the condition on p so that there is a sphere in R3 whose mean curvature is given by p. There were important works by Treibergs-Wei [2] and others on this question. Recently in a lecture that I gave in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, I realized that my work with R. Schoen on the existence of black hole can be used to settle the prescribed mean curvature question for a large class of p.

In this paper we study the problem of recovering the reflecting surface in a reflector system which consists of a point light source, a reflecting surface, and an object to be illuminated. This problem involves a fully nonlinear partial differential equation of MongeAmp`ere type, subject to a nonlinear second boundary condition. A weak solution can be obtained by approximation by piecewise ellipsoidal surfaces. The regularity is a very complicated issue but we found precise conditions for it.

In this note we verify certain statement about the operator Q\_K constructed by Donaldson in [3] by using the full asymptotic expansion of Bergman kernel obtained in [2] and [4].