In this paper we study the analytic torsion and the L2-torsion of compact locally symmetric manifolds. We consider the analytic torsion with respect to representations of the fundamental group which are obtained by restriction of irreducible representations of the group of isometries of the underlying symmetric space. The main purpose is to study the asymptotic behavior of the analytic torsion with respect to sequences of representations associated to rays of highest weights.

The entropy of a hypersurface is a geometric invariant that measures complexity and is invariant under rigid motions and dilations. It is given by the supremum over all Gaussian integrals with varying centers and scales. It is monotone under mean curvature flow, thus giving a Lyapunov functional. Therefore, the entropy of the initial hypersurface bounds the entropy at all future singularities. We show here that not only does the round sphere have the lowest entropy of any closed singularity, but there is a gap to the second lowest.

Let G be a connected Lie group. We show that all characteristic classes of G are bounded—when viewed in the cohomology of the classifying space of the group G with the discrete topology—if and only if the derived group of the radical of G is simply connected in its Lie group topology. We also give equivalent conditions in terms of stable commutator length and distortion.

We give a local classification of generalized complex structures. About a point, a generalized complex structure is equivalent to a product of a symplectic manifold with a holomorphic Poisson manifold. We use a Nash-Moser type argument in the style of Conn’s linearization theorem.

A well-known conjecture of Yau states that the first eigenvalue of every closed minimal hypersurface Mn in the unit sphere S^(n+1)(1) is just its dimension n. The present paper shows that Yau conjecture is true for minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces. Moreover, the more fascinating result of this paper is that the first eigenvalues of the focal submanifolds are equal to their dimensions in the non-stable range.