We prove several formulas related to Hodge theory and theKodaira– Spencer–Kuranishi deformation theory of Kähler manifolds. As applications, wepresent a construction of globally convergent power series of integrableBeltrami differentials on Calabi–Yau manifolds and also a construction of global canonical family of holomorphic (n, 0)-forms on the deformation spaces of Calabi–Yau manifolds. Similar constructions are also applied to the deformation spaces of compact Kähler manifolds.

We apply a study of orders in quaternion algebras, to the differential geometry of Riemann surfaces. The least length of a closed geodesic on a hyperbolic surface is called its systole,and denoted sysπ1. P. Buser and P. Sarnak constructed Riemann surfaces X whose systole behaves logarithmically in the genus g(X). The Fuchsian groups in their examples are principal congruence subgroups of a fixed arithmetic group with rational trace field. We generalize their construction to principal congruence subgroups of arbitrary arithmetic surfaces. The key tool is a new trace estimate valid for an arbitrary ideal in a quaternion algebra. We obtain a particularly sharp bound for a principal congruence tower of Hurwitz surfaces (PCH), namely the 4/3bound sysπ1(XPCH) ≥ 43 log(g(XPCH)). Similar results are obtained for the systole of hyperbolic 3-manifolds, relative to their simplicial volume.

We prove a quantitative bi-Lipschitz non-embedding theorem for the Heisenberg group with its Carnot–Carathéodory metric and apply it to give a lower bound on the integrality gap of the Goemans–Linial semidefinite relaxation of the sparsest cut problem.

We give a complete classification of irreducible symmetric spaces for which there exist proper SL(2,R)-actions as isometries, using the criterion for proper actions by T. Kobayashi [Math. Ann. ’89] and combinatorial techniques of nilpotent orbits. In particular, we classify irreducible symmetric spaces that admit surface groups as discontinuous groups, combining this with Benoist’s theorem [Ann. Math. ’96].

A discrete conformality for polyhedral metrics on surfaces is introduced in this paper. It is shown that each polyhedral metric on a compact surface is discrete conformal to a constant curvature polyhedral metric which is unique up to scaling. Furthermore, the constant curvature metric can be found using a finite dimensional variational principle.