For a path in a compact finite dimensional Alexandrov space X with curv  , the two basic geometric invariants are the length and the turning angle (which measures the closeness from being a geodesic). We show that the sum of the two invariants of any loop is bounded from below in terms of , the dimension, diameter, and Hausdorff measure of X. This generalizes a basic estimate of Cheeger on the length of a closed geodesic in a closed Riemannian manifold ([Ch], [GP1,2]). To see that the above result also generalizes and improves an analog of the Cheeger type estimate in Alexandrov geometry in [BGP], we show that for a class of subsets of X, the n-dimensional Hausdorff measure and rough volume are proportional by a constant depending on n = dim(X).

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We study Legendrian singularities arising in complex contact geometry. We define a one-parameter family of bases in the ring of Legendrian characteristic classes such that any Legendrian Thom polynomial has nonnegative coefficients when expanded in these bases. The method uses a suitable Lagrange Grassmann bundle on the product of projective spaces. This is an extension of a nonnegativity result for Lagrangian Thom polynomials obtained by the authors previously. For a fixed specialization, other special- izations of the parameter lead to upper bounds for the coefficients of the given basis. One gets also upper bounds of the coefficients from the positivity of classical Thom polynomials (of singularities of mappings), obtained previously by the last two authors.

In this paper, we generalize the Gauduchon metrics on a compact complex manifold and define the _k functions on the space of its hermitian metrics.

In this paper we study the geometry of manifolds with vector cross products and its complexification. First we develop the theory of instantons and branes and study their deformations. For example they are (i) holomorphic curves and Lagrangian submanifolds in symplectic manifolds and (ii) associative submanifolds and coassociative submanifolds in G2-manifolds. Second we classify K¨ahler manifolds with the complex analog of the vector cross product, namely they are Calabi-Yau manifolds and hyperk¨ahler manifolds. Furthermore we study instantons, Neumann branes and Dirichlet branes on these manifolds. For example they are special Lagrangian submanifolds with phase angle zero, complex hypersurfaces and special Lagrangian submanifolds with phase angle pi/2 in Calabi-Yau manifolds.