Let X CPN be a smooth subvariety. We study a flow, called balancing flow, on the space of projectively equivalent embeddings of X which attempts to deform the given embedding into a balanced one. If L X is an ample line bundle, considering embeddings via H0(Lk) gives a sequence of balancing flows. We prove that, provided these flows are started at appropriate points, they converge to Calabi flow for as long as it exists. This result is the parabolic analogue of Donaldsons theorem relating balanced embeddings to metrics with constant scalar curvature [12]. In our proof we combine Donaldson乫s techniques with an asymptotic result of Liu and Ma [17] which, as we explain, describes the asymptotic behavior of the derivative of the map FS . Hilb whose fixed points are balanced metrics.

We prove three new monotonicity formulas for manifolds with a lower Ricci curvature bound and show that they are connected to rate of convergence to tangent cones. In fact, we show that the derivative of each of these three monotone quantities is bounded from below in terms of the Gromov–Hausdorff distance to the nearest cone. The monotonicity formulas are related to the classical Bishop–Gromov volume comparison theorem and Perelman’s celebrated monotonicity formula for the Ricci flow. We will explain the connection between all of these.

We construct many new non-liftable three-dimensional Calabi–Yau spaces in positive characteristic. The technique relies on lifting a nodal model to a smooth rigid Calabi–Yau space over some number field as introduced by one of us jointily with D. van Straten.

Let M be a closed orientable 3-manifold admitting an H2 × R or gSL2(R) geometry, or equivalently a Seifert fibered space with a hyperbolic base 2-orbifold. Our main result is that the connected component of the identity map in the diffeomorphism group Diff(M) is either contractible or homotopy equivalent to S1, according as the center of 1(M) is trivial or infinite cyclic. Apart from the remaining case of non-Haken infranilmanifolds, this completes the homeomorphism classifications of Diff(M) and of the space of Seifert fiberings SF(M) for compact orientable aspherical 3-manifolds. We also prove that when M has an H2×R or gSL2(R) geometry and the base orbifold has underlying manifold the 2sphere with three cone points, the inclusion Isom(M) ! Diff(M) is a homotopy equivalence.

We define analytic torsion (X, E,H) 2 detH•(X, E,H) for the twisted de Rham complex, consisting of the spaces of differential forms on a compact oriented Riemannian manifold X valued in a flat vector bundle E, with a differential given by rE + H ^ · , where rE is a flat connection on E, H is an odd-degree closed differential form on X, and H•(X, E,H) denotes the cohomology of this Z2-graded complex. The definition uses pseudodifferential operators and residue traces. We show that when dimX is odd, (X, E,H) is independent of the choice of metrics on X and E and of the representative H in the cohomology class [H]. We define twisted analytic torsion in the context of generalized geometry and show that when H is a 3-form, the deformation H 7! H−dB, where B is a 2-form on X, is equivalent to deforming a usual metric g to a generalized metric (g,B). We demonstrate some basic functorial properties. When H is a top-degree form, we compute the torsion, define its simplicial counterpart, and prove an analogue of the Cheeger-M¨uller Theorem. We also study the twisted analytic torsion for T -dual circle bundles with integral 3- form fluxes.