Let M be a compact Riemannian manifold with a fixed conformal structure. Then we introduce the concept of conformal volume of M in the following manner. For each branched conformal immersion q9 of M into the unit sphere S n, we consider the set of all branched conformal immersions obtained by composition of qo with the conformal automorphisms of S". We let Vc (n, qg) be the maximum volume of these branched immersions. The conformal volume of M is defined to be the infimum of V.(n, q0) where qo ranges over all branched conformal immersions of M into the unit sphere S". In this paper, we study the case when M is a compact surface and we call the conformal volume of M to be the conformal area of M. We demonstrate that this conformal invariant is non-trivial. In fact, we prove that if there exists a minimal immersion of M into S" where coordinate functions are first eigenfunctions, then the conformal area of M is given by the area of M with respect to the induced metric. This enables us to compute the conformal area for several surfaces. For example, the conformal area of RP z is 6n and the conformal area of the square torus is 27c 2. We believe that the computation of the conformal area for general surfaces will be very important in studying the geometry of compact surfaces. We demonstrate this claim by applying the concept of conformal area to two different branches of surface theory. The first application is to study the total curvature of a compact surface in R". This problem has a long history. Fenchel and Fary [9] proved that for a closed curve o in R", Slk [> 27c where k is its curvature. Then Milnor [12] r proved that 5lk]> 4~ z if cr is

The classical Minkowski formula is extended to spacelike codimension-two submanifolds in spacetimes which admit "hidden symmetry" from conformal Killing-Yano two-forms. As an application, we obtain an Alexandrov type theorem for spacelike codimension-two submanifolds in a static spherically symmetric spacetime: a codimension-two submanifold with constant normalized null expansion (null mean curvature) must lie in a shear-free (umbilical) null hypersurface. These results are generalized for higher order curvature invariants. In particular, the notion of mixed higher order mean curvature is introduced to highlight the special null geometry of the submanifold. Finally, Alexandrov type theorems are established for spacelike submanifolds with constant mixed higher order mean curvature, which are generalizations of hypersurfaces of constant Weingarten curvature in the Euclidean space.

In this paper, we classify n-dimensional ($n\ge 4$) complete Bach-flat gradient shrinking Ricci solitons. More precisely, we prove that any 4-dimensional Bach-flat gradient shrinking Ricci soliton is either Einstein, or locally conformally flat hence a finite quotient of the Gaussian shrinking soliton R^4 or the round cylinder S^3 x R. More generally, for $n\ge 5$, a Bach-flat gradient shrinking Ricci soliton is either Einstein, or a finite quotient of the Gaussian shrinking soliton $R^n$ or the product $N^{n-1}xR$, where $N^{n-1}$ is Einstein.

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Inspired by the work of Z. Lu and G. Tian (Duke Math. J. 125:351–387,2004) in the compact setting, in this paper we address the problem of studying the Szegö kernel of the disk bundle over a noncompact Kähler manifold. In particular we compute the Szegö kernel of the disk bundle over a Cartan–Hartogs domain based on a bounded symmetric domain. The main ingredients in our analysis are the fact that every Cartan–Hartogs domain can be viewed as an “iterated” disk bundle over its base and the ideas given in (Arezzo, Loi and Zuddas in Math. Z. 275:1207–1216,2013) for the computation of the Szegö kernel of the disk bundle over an Hermitian symmetric space of compact type.