We develop deformation theory for abelian invariant complex structures on a nilmanifold, and prove that in this case the invariance property is preserved by the Kuranishi process. A purely algebraic condition characterizes the deformations leading again to abelian structures, and we prove that such deformations are unobstructed. Various examples illustrate the resulting theory, and the behavior possible in three complex dimensions.

This is the first of a series of three papers which prove the fact that a K-stable Fano manifold admits a Khler-Einstein metric. The main result of this paper is that a Khler-Einstein metric with cone singularities along a divisor can be approximated by a sequence of smooth Khler metrics with controlled geometry in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense.

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).

The limiting behavior of the normalized KÄahler-Ricci °ow for manifolds with positive ¯rst Chern class is examined under certain stability conditions. First, it is shown that if the Mabuchi Kenergy is bounded from below, then the scalar curvature converges uniformly to a constant. Second, it is shown that if the Mabuchi Kenergy is bounded from below and if the lowest positive eigenvalue of the ¹@y ¹@ operator on smooth vector ¯elds is bounded away from0 along the °ow, then the metrics converge exponentially fast in C1 to a KÄahler-Einstein metric.

We show that every complete nontrivial gradient Yamabe soliton admits a special global warped product structure with a one-dimensional base. Based on this, we obtain a general classification theorem for complete nontrivial locally conformally flat gradient Yamabe solitons.