We briefly survey our recent results about the Mumford goodness of several canonical metrics on the moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, including the Weil-Petersson metric, the Ricci metric, the Perturbed Ricci metric and the Kahler-Einstein metric. We prove the dual Nakano negativity of the Weil-Petersson metric. As applications of these results we deduce certain important results about the <i>L</i> ²-cohomology groups of the logarithmic tangent bundle over the compactified moduli spaces.

The chapter discusses the equivariant loop theorem for three-dimensional manifolds that is needed in settling the Smith conjecture and reviews the existence theorems for minimal surfaces. The equivariant version of the loop theorem says that there are a finite number of properly embedded disks in <i>M</i> that satisfy the required properties. The loop theorem respects the action of the group <i>G</i> in a suitable manner. The chapter puts a metric on <i>M</i> so that the group <i>G</i> acts isometrically and so that <i>M</i> is convex with respect to the outward normal. Then with respect to this metric, the existence of an immersed disk <i>D</i>₁ is demonstrated, in <i>M</i> whose boundary <i> D₁</i>, represents a nontrivial element in ₁(<i>S</i>) and whose area is minimal among all such disks. The chapter describes Morrey's solution for the plateau problem in a general Riemannian manifold. The existence theorem for manifolds with boundary

Guy Bonneau has kindly pointed out two errors in [1]. The first is that the manifolds M (k) and M (k)/Z2 do not admit U (2)-invariant Einstein-Weyl structures for k 2; thus the last four entries in Table 4 (page 422) do not occur. The error is on pages 429430. The analysis there is correct, except that the critical line to consider in Lemma 7.5 and the subsequent calculation is = , instead of = 2/k, because of the constraint (D, ](equivalently, &gt; ) occurring in the definition of . On this line, one has

In this paper, we solve a problem of Kobayashi posed in (Complex Finsler vector bundles, American Mathematical Society, Providence, 1996) by introducing a Donaldson type functional on the space F + ( E ) of strongly pseudo-convex complex Finsler metrics on <i>E</i>a holomorphic vector bundle over a closed Khler manifold <i>M</i>. This Donaldson type functional is a generalization in the complex Finsler geometry setting of the original Donaldson functional and has FinslerEinstein metrics on <i>E</i> as its only critical points, at which this functional attains the absolute minimum.

Making use of the relations among 3-Sasakian manifolds, hypercomplex manifolds and quaternionic Khler orbifolds, we prove that complete 3-Sasakian manifolds are rigid.