We consider inverse curvature ows in Hn+1 with star-shaped initial hypersurfaces and prove that the ows exist for all time, and that the leaves converge to innity, become strongly convex exponentially fast and also more and more totally umbilic. Afteran appropriate rescaling the leaves converge in C1 to a sphere.

A two-dimensional periodic Schr\"{o}dingier operator is associated with every Lagrangian torus in the complex projective plane ${\mathbb C}P^2$. Using this operator we introduce an energy functional on the set of Lagrangian tori. It turns out this energy functional coincides with the Willmore functional $W^{-}$ introduced by Montiel and Urbano. We study the energy functional on a family of Hamiltonian-minimal Lagrangian tori and support the Montiel--Urbano conjecture that the minimum of the functional is achieved by the Clifford torus. We also study deformations of minimal Lagrangian tori and show that if a deformation preserves the conformal type of the torus, then it also preserves the area, i.e. preserves the value of the energy functional. In particular, the deformations generated by Novikov--Veselov equations preserve the area of minimal Lagrangian tori.

We consider two natural problems arising in geometry which are equivalent to the local solvability of specific equations of Monge- Amp`ere type. These two problems are: the local isometric embedding problem for two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds, and the problem of locally prescribed Gaussian curvature for surfaces in R3. We prove a general local existence result for a large class of Monge-Amp`ere equations in the plane, and obtain as corollaries the existence of regular solutions to both problems, in the case that the Gaussian curvature vanishes to arbitrary finite order on a single smooth curve.

For stratified Mukai flops of type An,k,D2k+1 and E6,I , it is shown that the fiber product induces isomorphisms on Chow motives. In contrast to (standard) Mukai flops, the cup product is generally not preserved. For An,2, D5 and E6,I flops, quantum corrections are found through degeneration/deformation to ordinary flops.

We study certain natural differential forms [] and their G equivariant extensions on the space of connections. These forms are defined using the family local index theorem. When the base manifold is symplectic, they define a family of symplectic forms on the space of connections. We will explain their relationships with the Einstein metric and the stability of vector bundles. These forms also determine primary and secondary characteristic forms (and their higher level generalizations).