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.

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.

Given a hyperbolic surface with geodesic boundary S, the lengths of a maximal system of disjoint simple geodesic arcs on S that start and end at @S perpendicularly are coordinates on the Teichm¨uller space T (S). We express the Weil-Petersson Poisson structure of T (S) in this system of coordinates, and we prove that it limits pointwise to the piecewise-linear Poisson structure defined by Kontsevich on the arc complex of S. At the same time, we obtain a formula for the first-order variation of the distance between two closed geodesics under Fenchel-Nielsen deformation.

A Riemannian or Finsler metric on a compact manifoldM gives rise to a length function on the free loop space M, whose critical points are the closed geodesics in the given metric. If X is a homology class on M, the “minimax” critical level cr(X) is a critical value. Let M be a sphere of dimension > 2, and fix a metric g and a coefficient field G. We prove that the limit as deg(X) goes to infinity of cr(X)/ deg(X) exists. We call this limit = (M, g,G) the global mean frequency of M. As a consequence we derive resonance statements for closed geodesics on spheres; in particular either all homology on  of sufficiently high degreee lies hanging on closed geodesics of mean frequency (length/average index) , or there is a sequence of infinitely many closed geodesics whose mean frequencies converge to . The proof uses the ChasSullivan product and results of Goresky-Hingston [7].