In this paper we investigate a kind of generalized Ricci flow which possesses a gradient form. We study the monotonicity of the given function under the generalized Ricci flow and prove that the related system of partial differential equations are strictly and uniformly parabolic. Based on this, we show that the generalized Ricci flow defined on an n-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold admits a unique short-time smooth solution. Moreover, we also derive the evolution equations for the curvatures, which play an important role in our future study.

By studying modular invariance properties of some characteristic forms, we get some new anomaly cancellation formulas on (4 r 1) dimensional manifolds. As an application, we derive some results on divisibilities of the index of Toeplitz operators on (4 r 1) dimensional spin manifolds and some congruent formulas on characteristic number for (4 r 1) dimensional spin c manifolds.

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We construct examples of shrinkers and expanders for Lagrangian mean curvature flows. These examples are Hamiltonian stationary and asymptotic to the union of two Hamiltonian stationary cones found by Schoen and Wolfson in [SWO]. The Schoen- Wolfson cones Cp,q are obstructions to the existence problems of special Lagrangians or Lagrangian minimal surfaces in the variational approach. It is known that these cone singularities cannot be resolved by any smooth oriented Lagrangian submanifolds. The shrinkers and expanders that we found can be glued together to yield solutions of the Brakke motion-a weak formulation of the mean curvature flow. For any coprime pair (p, q) with p > q > 1, we construct such a solution that resolves one single Schoen-Wolfson cone Cp,q. Note that Cp,q is stable only if p . q = 1. It thus provides an evidence to Schoen-Wolfson’s conjecture that the (2, 1) cone is the only area-minimizing cone. Higher dimensional generalizations are also obtained.

We present a brief but nearly self-contained proof of a formula for the Weil-Petersson Hessian of the geodesic length of a closed curve (either simple or not simple) on a hyperbolic surface. The formula is the sum of the integrals of two naturally defined positive functions over the geodesic, proving convexity of this functional over Teichmuller space (due to Wolpert (1987)). We then estimate this Hessian from below in terms of local quantities and distance along the geodesic. The formula extends to proper arcs on punctured hyperbolic surfaces, and the estimate to laminations. Wolpert’s result that the Thurston metric is a multiple of the Weil-Petersson metric directly follows on taking a limit of the formula over an appropriate sequence of curves. We give further applications to upper bounds of the Hessian, especially near pinching loci, recover through a geometric argumentWolpert’s result on the convexity of length to the half-power, and give a lower bound for growth of length in terms of twist.