Let g(t) be a smooth complete solution to the Ricci flow on a noncompact manifold such that g(0) is Kahler. We prove that if |Rm(g(t))| is bounded by a/t for some a > 0, then g(t) is Kahler for t > 0. We prove that there is a constant a(n) > 0 depending only on n such that the following is true: Suppose g(t) is a smooth complete solution to the Kahler-Ricci flow on a non-compact n-dimensional complex manifold such that g(0) has nonnegative holomorphic bisectional curvature and |Rm(g(t))| ≤ a(n)/t, then g(t) has nonnegative holomorphic bisectional curvature for t > 0. These generalize the results by Wan-Xiong Shi. As applications, we prove that (i) any complete noncompact Kahler manifold with nonnegative complex sectional curvature and maximum volume growth is biholomorphic to C^n; and (ii) there is ε(n) > 0 depending only on n such that if (M^n,g_0) is a complete noncompact Kahler manifold of complex dimension n with nonnegative holomorphic bisectional curvature and maximum volume growth and if (1+ε(n))^{−1}h ≤ g_0 ≤ (1+ε(n))h for some Riemannian metric h with bounded curvature, then M is biholomorphic to C^n.

This work uncovers the tropical analogue, for measured laminations, of the convex hull construction in decorated Teichm¨uller theory; namely, it is a study in coordinates of geometric degeneration to a point of Thurston’s boundary for Teichm¨uller space. This may offer a paradigm for the extension of the basic cell decomposition of Riemann’s moduli space to other contexts for general moduli spaces of flat connections on a surface. In any case, this discussion drastically simplifies aspects of previous related studies as is explained. Furthermore, a new class of measured laminations relative to an ideal cell decomposition of a surface is discovered in the limit. Finally, the tropical analogue of the convex hull construction inMinkowski space is formulated as an explicit algorithm that serially simplifies a triangulation with respect to a fixed lamination and has its own independent interest.

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The classification work [5], [8] left unsettled only those anomalous isoparametric hypersurfaces with four principal curvatures and multiplicity pair {4, 5}, {6, 9}, or {7, 8} in the sphere. By systematically exploring the ideal theory in commutative algebra in conjunction with the geometry of isoparametric hypersurfaces, we show that an isoparametric hypersurface with four principal curvatures and multiplicities {4, 5} in S19 is homogeneous, and, moreover, an isoparametric hypersurface with four principal curvatures and multiplicities {6, 9} in S31 is either the inhomogeneous one constructed by Ferus, Karcher, and M¨unzner, or the one that is homogeneous. This classification reveals the striking resemblance between these two rather different types of isoparametric hypersurfaces in the homogeneous category, even though the one with multiplicities {6, 9} is of the type constructed by Ferus, Karcher, and M¨unzner and the one with multiplicities {4, 5} stands alone. The quaternion and the octonion algebras play a fundamental role in their geometric structures. A unifying theme in [5], [8], and the present sequel to them is Serre’s criterion of normal varieties. Its technical side pertinent to our situation that we developed in [5], [8] and extend in this sequel is instrumental. The classification leaves only the case of multiplicity pair {7, 8} open.

We describe a general geometrical construction of representations of fundamental groups of 3-manifolds into PU(2, 1) and eventually of spherical CR structures defined on those 3-manifolds. We construct branched spherical CR structures on the complement of the figure eight knot and the Whitehead link. They have discrete holonomies contained in PU(2, 1,Z[ω]) and PU(2, 1,Z[i]) respectively.