We show that the notion of hyperconvex representation due to F. Labourie gives a geometric characterization of the representations of a surface group in PSLn(R) that belong to the Hitchin component.

Entropy is a natural geometric quantity measuring the complexity of a surface embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$. For dynamical reasons relating to mean curvature flow, Colding-Ilmanen-Minicozzi-White conjectured that the entropy of any closed surface is at least that of the self-shrinking two-sphere. We prove this conjecture for all closed embedded $2$-spheres. Assuming a conjectural Morse index bound (announced recently by Marques-Neves), we can improve the result to apply to all closed embedded surfaces that are not tori. Our results can be thought of as the parabolic analog to the Willmore conjecture and our argument is analogous in many ways to that of Marques-Neves on the Willmore problem. The main tool is the min-max theory applied to the Gaussian area functional in $\mathbb{R}^3$ which we also establish. To any closed surface in $\mathbb{R}^3$ we associate a four parameter canonical family of surfaces and run a min-max procedure. The key step is ruling out the min-max sequence approaching a self-shrinking plane, and we accomplish this with a degree argument. To establish the min-max theory for $\mathbb{R}^3$ with Gaussian weight, the crucial ingredient is a tightening map that decreases the mass of non-stationary varifolds (with respect to the Gaussian metric of $\mathbb{R}^3$) in a continuous manner.

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.

Let ($M$,$ω$) be a connected, symplectic 4-manifold. A$semitoric integrable system$on ($M$,$ω$) essentially consists of a pair of independent, real-valued, smooth functions$J$and$H$on$M$, for which$J$generates a Hamiltonian circle action under which$H$is invariant. In this paper we give a general method to construct, starting from a collection of five ingredients, a symplectic 4-manifold equipped a semitoric integrable system. Then we show that every semitoric integrable system on a symplectic 4-manifold is obtained in this fashion. In conjunction with the uniqueness theorem proved recently by the authors, this gives a classification of semitoric integrable systems on 4-manifolds, in terms of five invariants.

By a special symplectic connection we mean a torsion free connection which is either the Levi-Civita connection of a Bochner-K¨ahler metric of arbitrary signature, a Bochner-bi-Lagrangian connection, a connection of Ricci type or a connection with special symplectic holonomy. A manifold or orbifold with such a connection is called special symplectic. We show that the symplectic reduction of (an open cell of) a parabolic contact manifold by a symmetry vector field is special symplectic in a canonical way. Moreover, we show that any special symplectic manifold or orbifold is locally equivalent to one of these symplectic reductions. As a consequence, we are able to prove a number of global properties, including a classification in the compact simply connected case.