In this paper, we study smooth complex projective varieties X such that some exterior power ⋀^rT_X of the tangent bundle is strictly nef. We prove that such varieties are rationally connected. We also classify the following two cases. If T_X is strictly nef, then X isomorphic to the projective space P^n. If ⋀^2T_X is strictly nef and if X has dimension at least 3, then X is either isomorphic to P^n or a quadric Q^n.

In 1960s, Almgren initiated a program to find minimal hypersurfaces in compact manifolds using min-max method. This program was largely advanced by Pitts and Schoen-Simon in 1980s when the manifold has no boundary. In this paper, we finish this program for general compact manifold with nonempty boundary. As a result, we prove the existence of a smooth embedded minimal hypersurface with free boundary in any compact smooth Euclidean domain. An application of our general existence result combined with the work of Marques and Neves shows that for any compact Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature and convex boundary, there exist infinitely many embedded minimal hypersurfaces with free boundary which are properly embedded.

We prove the Poisson geometric version of the Local Reeb Stability (from foliation theory) and of the Slice Theorem (from equivariant geometry), which is also a generalization of Conn’s linearization theorem.

We show that closed hypersurfaces in Euclidean space with nonnegative scalar curvature are weakly mean convex. In contrast, the statement is no longer true if the scalar curvature is replaced by the kth mean curvature, for k greater than 2, as we construct the counterexamples for all k greater than 2. Our proof relies on a new geometric argument which relates the scalar curvature and mean curvature of a hypersurface to the mean curvature of the level sets of a height function. By extending the argument, we show that complete noncompact asymptotically flat hypersurfaces with nonnegative scalar curvature are weakly mean convex and prove the positive mass theorem for such hypersurfaces in all dimensions.

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