By using Yau's Schwarz lemma and the Quillen determinant line bundles, several results about fibered algebraic surfaces and the moduli spaces of curves are improved and reproved.

In this paper, we study the Nakano-positivity and dual-Nakano-positivity of certain adjoint vector bundles associated to ample vector bundles. As applications, we get new vanishing theorems about ample vector bundles. For example, we prove that if E is an ample vector bundle over a compact Khler manifold E , $ S^ kE\ts\det E $ is both Nakano-positive and dual-Nakano-positive for any E . Moreover, $ H^{n, q}(X, S^ kE\ts\det E)= H^{q, n}(X, S^ kE\ts\det E)= 0$ for any E . In particular, if E is a Griffiths-positive vector bundle, the naturally induced Hermitian vector bundle $(S^ kE\ts\det E, S^ kh\ts\det h) $ is both Nakano-positive and dual-Nakano-positive for any E .

We provide an exhaustive description of all simply connected positively curved cohomogeneity one manifolds. The description yields a complete classification in all dimensions but 7, where in addition to known examples, our list contains one exceptional space and two infinite families not yet known to carry metrics of positive curvature. The infinite families also carry a 3-Sasakian metric of cohomogeneity one, which is associated to a family of selfdual Einstein orbifold metrics on the 4-sphere constructed by Hitchin.

In this note we introduce a natural Finsler structure on convex surfaces, referred to as the quotient Finsler structure, which is dual in a sense to the inclusion of a convex surface in a normed space as a submanifold. It has an associated quotient girth, which is similar to the notion of girth defined by Sch¨affer. We prove the analogs of Sch¨affer’s dual girth conjecture (proved by ´ Alvarez-Paiva) and the Holmes–Thompson dual volumes theorem in the quotient setting. We then show that the quotient Finsler structure admits a natural extension to higher Grassmannians, and prove the corresponding theorems in the general case. We follow ´ Alvarez-Paiva’s approach to the problem, namely, we study the symplectic geometry of the associated co-ball bundles. For the higher Grassmannians, the theory of Hamiltonian actions is applied.

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.