The dimension datum of a subgroup of a compact Lie group is a piece of spectral information about that subgroup. We find some new invariants and phenomena of the dimension data and apply them to construct the first example of a pair of isospectral, simply connected closed Riemannian manifolds which are of different homotopy types. We also answer questions proposed by Langlands.

A foliation F on a Riemannian manifold M is hyperpolar if it admits a flat section, that is, a connected closed flat submanifold of M that intersects each leaf of F orthogonally. In this article we classify the hyperpolar homogeneous foliations on every Riemannian symmetric space M of noncompact type. These foliations are constructed as follows. Let  be an orthogonal subset of a set of simple roots associated with the symmetric space M. Then  determines a horospherical decomposition M = Fs ×ErankM−||×N, where Fs  is the Riemannian product of || symmetric spaces of rank one. Every hyperpolar homogeneous foliation on M is isometrically congruent to the product of the following objects: a particular homogeneous codimension one foliation on each symmetric space of rank one in Fs , a foliation by parallel affine subspaces on the Euclidean space ErankM−||, and the horocycle subgroup N of the parabolic subgroup of the isometry group of M determined by .

In this paper we provide a detailed proof of the second variation formula, essentially due to Richard Hamilton, Tom Ilmanen and the first author, for Perelman’s ν-entropy. In particular, we correct an error in the stability operator stated in Theorem 6.3 of [2]. Moreover, we obtain a necessary condition for linearly stable shrinkers in terms of the least eigenvalue and its multiplicity of certain Lichnerowicz type operator associated to the second variation.

In this paper, we prove a general existence theorem for properly embedded minimal surfaces with free boundary in any compact Riemannian 3‐manifold M with boundary ∂M. These minimal surfaces are either disjoint from ∂M or meet ∂M orthogonally. The main feature of our result is that there is no assumptions on the curvature of M or convexity of ∂M. We prove the boundary regularity of the minimal surfaces at their free boundaries. Furthermore, we define a topological invariant, the filling genus, for compact 3‐manifolds with boundary and show that we can bound the genus of the minimal surface constructed above in terms of the filling genus of the ambient manifold M. Our proof employs a variant of the min‐max construction used by Colding and De Lellis on closed embedded minimal surfaces, which were first developed by Almgren and Pitts.

In this article we study compact K¨ahler manifolds satisfying a certain nonnegativity condition on the bisectional curvature. Under this condition, we show that the scalar curvature is nonnegative and that the first Chern class is positive assuming local irreducibility. We also obtain a partial classification of possible de Rham decompositions of the universal cover under this condition.