For Riemannian manifolds with a measure (M, g, e.fdvolg) we prove mean curvature and volume comparison results when the亣- Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor is bounded from below and f or |f| is bounded, generalizing the classical ones (i.e. when f is constant). This leads to extensions of many theorems for Ricci curvature bounded below to the Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor. In particular, we give extensions of all of the major comparison theorems when f is bounded. Simple examples show the bound on f is necessary for these results.

We prove the existence of a smooth minimizer of the Willmore energy in the class of conformal immersions of a given closed Riemann surface into IRn, n = 3, 4, if there is one conformal immersion with Willmore energy smaller than a certain bound Wn,p depending on codimension and genus p of the Riemann surface. For tori in codimension 1, we know W3,1 = 8 .

We consider 3-dimensional hyperbolic cone-manifolds which are “convex co-compact” in a natural sense, with cone singularities along infinite lines. Such singularities are sometimes used by physicists as models for massive spinless point particles. We prove an infinitesimal rigidity statement when the angles around the singular lines are less than π: any infinitesimal deformation changes either these angles, or the conformal structure at infinity with marked points corresponding to the endpoints of the singular lines. Moreover, any small variation of the conformal structure at infinity and of the singular angles can be achieved by a unique small deformation of the cone-manifold structure. These results hold also when the singularities are along a graph, i.e., for “interacting particles”.

Let $f : \sum_1 \to \sum_2$ be an area preserving diffeomorphism between compact Riemann surfaces of constant curvature. The graph of $f$ can be viewed as a Lagrangian submanifold in $ \sum_1 \times \sum_2$. This article discusses a canonical way to deform $f$ along area preserving diffeomorphisms. This deformation process is realized through the mean curvature flow of the graph of $f$ in $ \sum_1 \times \sum_2$. It is proved that the flow exists for all time and the map converges to a canonical map. In particular, this gives a new proof of the classical topological results that $O(3)$ is a deformation retract of the diffeomorphism group of $S^2$ and the mapping class group of a Riemman surface of positive genus is a deformation retract of the diffeomorphism group .

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 .