We study the uniqueness of minimal submanifolds and the stability of the mean curvature flow in several well-known model spaces of manifolds of special holonomy. These include the Stenzel metric on the cotangent bundle of spheres, the Calabi metric on the cotangent bundle of complex projective spaces, and the Bryant--Salamon metrics on vector bundles over certain Einstein manifolds. In particular, we show that the zero sections, as calibrated submanifolds with respect to their respective ambient metrics, are unique among compact minimal submanifolds and are dynamically stable under the mean curvature flow. The proof relies on intricate interconnections of the Ricci flatness of the ambient space and the extrinsic geometry of the calibrated submanifolds.

Suppose A and B are normed division algebras, i.e. R,C,H or O, we introduce and study Grassmannians of linear subspaces in (A ⊗ B)n which are complex/Lagrangian/maximal isotropic with respect to natural two tensors on (A ⊗ B)n. We show that every irreducible compact symmetric space must be one of these Grassmannian spaces, possibly up to a finite cover. This gives a simple and uniform description of all compact symmetric spaces. This generalizes the Tits magic square description for simple Lie algebras to compact symmetric spaces.

We consider surfaces M2 immersed in En c × R, where En c is a simply connected n-dimensional complete Riemannian manifold with constant sectional curvature c 6= 0, and assume that the mean curvature vector of the immersion is parallel in the normal bundle. We consider further a Hopf-type complex quadratic form Q on M2, where the complex structure of M2 is compatible with the induced metric. It is not hard to check that Q is holomorphic (see [3], p.289). We will use this fact to give a reasonable description of immersed surfaces in En c ×R that have parallel mean curvature vector.

Let M⊂CN be a generic real-analytic submanifold of finite type, M′⊂CN′ be a real-analytic set, and p∈M, where we assume that N,N′⩾2. Let H:(CN,p)→CN′ be a formal holomorphic mapping sending M into M′, and let EM′ denote the set of points in M′ through which there passes a complex-analytic subvariety of positive dimension contained in M′. We show that, if H does not send M into EM′, then H must be convergent. As a consequence, we derive the convergence of all formal holomorphic mappings when M′ does not contain any complex-analytic subvariety of positive dimension, answering by this a long-standing open question in the field. More generally, we establish necessary conditions for the existence of divergent formal maps, even when the target real-analytic set is foliated by complex-analytic subvarieties, allowing us to settle additional convergence problems such as e.g. for transversal formal maps between Levi-non-degenerate hypersurfaces and for formal maps with range in the tube over the light cone.

We review some recent results on the mean curvature flows of Lagrangian submanifolds from the perspective of geometric partial differential equations. These include global existence and convergence results, characterizations of first-time singularities, and constructions of self-similar solutions.