For any smooth Riemannian metric on an (n+1)-dimensional compact manifold with boundary (M,∂M) where 3≤(n+1)≤7, we establish general upper bounds for the Morse index of free boundary minimal hypersurfaces produced by min-max theory in the Almgren-Pitts setting. We apply our Morse index estimates to prove that for almost every (in the C-infinity Baire sense) Riemannan metric, the union of all compact, properly embedded free boundary minimal hypersurfaces is dense in M. If ∂M is further assumed to have a strictly mean convex point, we show the existence of infinitely many compact, properly embedded free boundary minimal hypersurfaces whose boundaries are non-empty. Our results prove a conjecture of Yau for generic metrics in the free boundary setting.

By studying the Seiberg-Witten equations on end-periodic manifolds, we give an obstruction on the existence of positive scalar curvature metric on compact 4-manifolds with the same homology as S1×S3. This obstruction is given in terms of the relation between the Frøyshov invariant of the generator of H3(X;Z) with the 4-dimensional Casson invariant λSW(X) defined by Mrowka-Ruberman-Saveliev. Along the way, we develop a framework that can be useful in further study of the Seiberg-Witten theory on general end-periodic manifolds.

A surgery on a knot in 3-sphere is called SU(2)-cyclic if it gives a manifold whose fundamental group has no non-cyclic SU(2) representations. Using holonomy perturbations on the Chern-Simons functional, we prove that the distance of two SU(2)-cyclic surgery coefficients is bounded by the sum of the absolute values of their numerators. This is an analog of Culler-Gordon-Luecke-Shalen's cyclic surgery theorem.

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We establish a boundary maximum principle for free boundary minimal submanifolds in a Riemannian manifold with boundary, in any dimension and codimension. Our result holds more generally in the context of varifolds.