In the study of geometric objects that arise naturally, the main tools are either groups or equations. In the rst case, powerful algebraic methods are available and enable one to solve many deep problems. While algebraic methods are still important in the second case, analytic methods play a dominant role, especially when the dening equations are transcendental. Indeed, even in the situation where the geometric object is homogeneous or algebraic, analytic methods often lead to important contributions. In this talk, we shall discuss a class of problems in differential geometry and the analytic methods that are involved in solving such problems.

We consider the quermassintegral preserving flow of closed \emph{h-convex} hypersurfaces in hyperbolic space with the speed given by any positive power of a smooth symmetric, strictly increasing, and homogeneous of degree one function $f$ of the principal curvatures which is inverse concave and has dual $f_*$ approaching zero on the boundary of the positive cone. We prove that if the initial hypersurface is \emph{h-convex}, then the solution of the flow becomes strictly \emph{h-convex} for $t>0$, the flow exists for all time and converges to a geodesic sphere exponentially in the smooth topology.

In this paper we discuss the change in contact structures as their supporting open book decompositions have their binding components cabled. To facilitate this and applications we define the notion of a rational open book decomposition that generalizes the standard notion of open book decomposition and allows one to more easily study surgeries on transverse knots. As a corollary to our investigation we are able to show there are Stein fillable contact structures supported by open books whose monodromies cannot be written as a product of positive Dehn twists. We also exhibit several monoids in the mapping class group of a surface that have contact geometric significance.

In this article, we describe various geometries on Riemannian manifolds via a unified approach using normed division algebras and vector cross products. They include K¨ahler geometry, Calabi-Yau geometry, hyperk¨ahler geometry, G2-geometry and geometry of Riemannian symmetric spaces.

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