It is proved that if a compact manifold admits a smooth action by a compact, connected, non-abelian Lie group, then it admits a metric of positive scalar curvature. This result is used to prove that if ^<i>n</i> is an exotic<i>n</i>-sphere which does not bound a spin manifold, then the only possible compact connected transformation groups of ^<i>n</i> are tori of dimension [(<i>n</i>+1)/2].

0. Introduction. Let Mn be a n-dimensional minimally immersed submanifold of M, Q&gt; 1. Throughout this paper M is taken to be one of the simply connected space forms with curvature 1, 0, or-1, ie Mfn+ f sn+ f, Rn+ f, or Hn+ f. Given a point p EM, let rp (x) be the dis-tance function on M, we denote the restriction of rp to M as the extrinsic distance function on M. For any a&gt; 0, we define the extrinsic ball cen-tered at p with radius a by

All orientable metric surfaces are Riemann surfaces and admit global conformal parameterizations. Riemann surface structure is a fundamental structure and governs many natural physical phenomena, such as heat diffusion and electro-magnetic fields on the surface. A good parameterization is crucial for simulation and visualization. This paper provides an explicit method for finding optimal global conformal parameterizations of arbitrary surfaces. It relies on certain holomorphic differential forms and conformal mappings from differential geometry and Riemann surface theories. Algorithms are developed to modify topology, locate zero points, and determine cohomology types of differential forms. The implementation is based on a finite dimensional optimization method. The optimal parameterization is intrinsic to the geometry, preserves angular structure, and can play an important role in various applications

We make a conjecture about mean curvature flow of Lagrangian submanifolds of Calabi-Yau manifolds, expanding on\cite {Th}. We give new results about the stability condition, and propose a Jordan-Hlder-type decomposition of (special) Lagrangians. The main results are the uniqueness of special Lagrangians in hamiltonian deformation classes of Lagrangians, under mild conditions, and a proof of the conjecture in some cases with symmetry: mean curvature flow converging to Shapere-Vafa's examples of SLags.

We give a generalizations of lower Ricci curvature bound in the framework of graphs. We prove that the Ricci curvature in the sense of Bakry and Emery is bounded below by 1 on locally finite graphs. The Ricci flat graph in the sense of Chung and Yau is proved to be a graph with Ricci curvature bounded below by zero. We also get an estimate for the eigenvalue of Laplace operator on finite graphs: 1 dD (exp (dD+ 1) 1)