In this article, we study the small sphere limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy defined in [18,19]. Given a point p in a spacetime N , we consider a canonical family of surfaces approaching p along its future null cone and evaluate the limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy. The evaluation relies on solving an "optimal embedding equation" whose solutions represent critical points of the quasi-local energy. For a spacetime with matter fields, the scenario is similar to that of the large sphere limit found in [7]. Namely, there is a natural solution which is a local minimum, and the limit of its quasi-local energy recovers the stress-energy tensor at p . For a vacuum spacetime, the quasi-local energy vanishes to higher order and the solution of the optimal embedding equation is more complicated. Nevertheless, we are able to show that there exists a solution which is a local minimum and that the limit of its quasi-local energy is related to the Bel-Robinson tensor. Together with earlier work [7], this completes the consistency verification of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy with all classical limits.

We define orbifold elliptic genus for general orbifolds which generalizes the definition of Borisov and Libgober, and prove their rigidity property.

If M is a hyperbolic 3-manifold with a quasigeodesic flow, then we show that 1(M) acts in a natural way on a closed disc by homeomorphisms. Consequently, such a flow either has a closed orbit or the action on the boundary circle is M¨obius-like but not conjugate into PSL(2,R).We conjecture that the latter possibility cannot occur.

We show that in a closed 3-manifold with a generic metric of positive Ricci curvature, there are minimal surfaces of arbitrary large Morse index, which partially confirms a conjecture by Marques and Neves. We prove this by analyzing the lamination structure of the limit of minimal surfaces with bounded Morse index.

We prove the vanishing of the top Chern classes of the moduli of rank three stable vector bundles on a smooth Riemann surface. More precisely, the Chern class ci for i > 6g − 5 of the moduli spaces of rank three vector bundles of degree one and two on a genus g smooth Riemann surface all vanish. This generalizes the rank two case, conjectured by Newstead and Ramanan and proved by Gieseker.