In this paper, we study the question of which compact manifolds admit a metric with positive scalar curvature. Scalar curvature is perhaps the weakest invariant among all the well-known invariants constructed from the curvature tensor. It measures the deviation of the Riemannian volume of the geodesic ball from the euclidean volume of the geodesic ball. As a result, it does not tell us much of the behavior of the geodesics in the manifold. Therefore it was remarkable that in 1963, Lichnerowicz [i] was able to prove the theorem that on a compact spin manifold with positive scalar curvature, there is no harmonic spinor. Applying

We study singular Hermitian metrics on vector bundles. There are two main results in this paper. The first one is on the coherence of the higher rank analogue of multiplier ideals for singular Hermitian metrics defined by global sections. As an application, we show the coherence of the multiplier ideal of some positively curved singular Hermitian metrics whose standard approximations are not Nakano semipositive. The aim of the second main result is to determine all negatively curved singular Hermitian metrics on certain type of vector bundles, for example, certain rank 2 bundles on elliptic curves.

A piecewise flat manifold is a triangulated manifold given a geometry by specifying edge lengths (lengths of 1-simplices) and specifying that all simplices are Euclidean. We consider the variation of angles of piecewise flat manifolds as the geometry varies in a particular way, which we call a conformal variation. This variation generalizes variations within the class of circles with fixed intersection angles (such as circle packings) as well as other formulations of conformal variation of piecewise flat manifolds previously suggested. We describe the angle derivatives of the angles in two-and three-dimensional piecewise flat manifolds, giving rise to formulas for the derivatives of curvatures. The formulas for derivatives of curvature resemble the formulas for the change of scalar curvature under a conformal variation of Riemannian metric. They allow us to explicitly describe the variation of certain curvature functionals, including Regge’s formulation of the Einstein-Hilbert functional (total scalar curvature), and to consider convexity of these functionals. They also allow us to prove rigidity theorems for certain analogues of constant curvature and Einstein manifolds in the piecewise flat setting.

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.

We show the existence of complete, asymptotically flat Cauchy initial data for the vacuum Einstein field equations, free of trapped surfaces, whose future development must admit a trapped surface. Moreover, the datum is exactly a constant time slice in Minkowski space-time inside and exactly a constant time slice in Kerr space-time outside. The proof makes use of the full strength of Christodoulou’s work on the dynamical formation of black holes and Corvino-Schoen’s work on the construction of initial data sets.