We develop a unifed theory to study geometry of manifolds with different holonomy groups. They are classified by (1) real, complex, quaternion or octonion number (in the appropriate cases) and (2) being special or not. Specialty is an orientation with respect to the corresponding normed algebra A. For example, special Riemannian A-manifolds are oriented Riemannian, Calabi-Yau, hyperk¨ahler and G2-manifolds respectively. For vector bundles over such manifolds, we introduce (special) A-connections. They include holomorphic, Hermitian Yang-Mills, Anti-Self-Dual and Donaldson-Thomas connections. Similarly we introduce (special) 1/2 A-Lagrangian submanifolds as maximally real submanifolds. They include (special) Lagrangian, complex Lagrangian, Cayley and (co-)associative submanifolds. We also discuss geometric dualities from this viewpoint: Fourier transformations on A-geometry for flat tori and a conjectural SYZ mirror transformation from (special) A-geometry to (special) 1/2 A-Lagrangian geometry on mirror special A-manifolds.

Vector cross product structures on manifolds include symplectic, volume, G2- and Spin(7)-structures. We show that the knot spaces of such manifolds have natural symplectic structures, and relate instantons and branes in these manifolds to holomorphic disks and Lagrangian submanifolds in their knot spaces. For the complex case, the holomorphic volume form on a Calabi–Yau manifold defines a complex vector cross product structure. We show that its isotropic knot space admits a natural holomorphic symplectic structure.We also relate the Calabi–Yau geometry of the manifold to the holomorphic symplectic geometry of its isotropic knot space.

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On a Fano manifold, we prove that the KhlerRicci flow starting from a Khler metric in the anti-canonical class which is sufficiently close to a KhlerEinstein metric must converge in a polynomial rate to a KhlerEinstein metric. The convergence cannot happen in general if we study the flow on the level of Khler potentials. Instead we exploit the interpretation of the Ricci flow as the gradient flow of Perelman's functional. This involves modifying the Ricci flow by a canonical family of gauges. In particular, the complex structure of the limit could be different in general. The main technical ingredient is a Lojasiewicz type inequality for Perelman's functional near a critical point.