We propose a general method that parameterizes general surfaces with complex (possible branching) topology using Riemann surface structure. Rather than evolve the surface geometry to a plane or sphere, we instead use the fact that all orientable surfaces are Riemann surfaces and admit conformal structures, which induce special curvilinear coordinate systems on the surfaces. We can then automatically partition the surface using a critical graph that connects zero points in the global conformal structure on the surface. The trajectories of iso-parametric curves canonically partition a surface into patches. Each of these patches is either a topological disk or a cylinder and can be conformally mapped to a parallelogram by integrating a holomorphic I-form defined on the surface. The resulting surface subdivision and the parameterizations of the components are intrinsic and stable. For surfaces with similar topology

We construct a generalized Witten genus for spinc manifolds, which takes values in level 1 modular forms with integral Fourier expansion on a class of spinc manifolds called stringc manifolds. We also construct a mod 2 analogue of the Witten genus for 8k+2 dimensional spin manifolds. The Landweber-Stong type vanishing theorems are proven for the generalizedWitten genus and the mod 2 Witten genus on stringc and string (generalized) complete intersections in (product of) complex projective spaces respectively.

We give a proof of the Hard Lefschetz Theorem for orbifolds that does not involve intersection homology. We use a foliated version of the Hard Lefschetz Theorem due to El Kacimi.

Motivated by new explicit positive Ricci curvature metrics on the four-sphere which are also Einstein-Weyl, we show that the dimension of the Einstein-Weyl moduli near certain Einstein metrics is bounded by the rank of the isometry group and that any Weyl manifold can be embedded as a hypersurface with prescribed second fundamental form in some Einstein-Weyl space. Closed four-dimensional Einstein-Weyl manifolds are proved to be absolute minima of the L²-norm of the curvature of Weyl manifolds and a local version of the Lafontaine inequality is obtained. The above metrics on the four-sphere are shown to contain minimal hypersurfaces isometric to S¹S² whose second fundamental form has constant length.

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.