In this paper, we prove the global rigidity of sphere packings on 3-dimensional manifolds. This is a 3-dimensional analogue of the rigidity theorem of Andreev-Thurston and was conjectured by Cooper and Rivin. We also prove a global rigidity result using a combinatorial scalar curvature introduced by Ge and the author.

We derive pointwise curvature estimates for graphical mean curvature flows in higher codimensions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such estimates without assuming smallness of first derivatives of the defining map. An immediate application is a convergence theorem of the mean curvature flow of the graph of an area decreasing map between flat Riemann surfaces.

In this paper, we study some algebraic topology aspects of Stringc structures, more precisely, from the perspective of Whitehead tower and the perspective of the loop group of Spinc(n). We also extend the generalized Witten genera constructed for the first time by Chen et al. [J. Differential Geom. 88 (2011), pp. 1–40] to correspond to Stringc structures of various levels and give vanishing results for them.

We consider localized deformation for initial data sets of the Einstein field equations with the dominant energy condition. Deformation results with the weak inequality need to be handled delicately. We introduce a modified constraint operator to absorb the first order change of the metric in the dominant energy condition. By establishing the local surjectivity theorem, we can promote the dominant energy condition to the strict inequality by compactly supported variations and obtain new gluing results with the dominant energy condition. The proof of local surjectivity is a modification of the earlier work for the usual constraint map by the first named author and R. Schoen and by P. Chru\'sciel and E. Delay, with some refined analysis.

Let S be a compact, orientable surface of hyperbolic type and let ψ be a mapping class of S. The present article shows that there exists a finite cover X of S and a lift ψ_X of ψ to X such that the spectral radius of ψ_X, viewed as an automorphism of H_1(X,C), is greater than one if and only if ψ has infinite order and is not a Dehn multitwist. Among the corollaries of this result is the fact that a compact, irreducible 3-manifold with toroidal or empty boundary and positive simplicial volume admits a finite cover for which the multivariable Alexander polynomial is not identically zero and has Mahler measure strictly greater than one; such a manifold also admits a finite cover whose integral first homology has nontrivial torsion. An independent proof of the main result of this paper was given by A. Hadari [Geom. Topol. 24 (2020), no. 4, 1717–1750; MR4173920]. In that paper, the surface was assumed to have at least one boundary component, but stronger control over the required finite covers was obtained.