By studying the heat semigroup, we prove Li-Yau type estimates for bounded and positive solutions of the heat equation on graphs, under the assumption of the curvature-dimension inequality $CDE'(n,0)$, which can be consider as a notion of curvature for graphs. Furthermore, we derive that if a graph has non-negative curvature then it has the volume doubling property, from this we can prove the Gaussian estimate for heat kernel, and then Poincar\'{e} inequality and Harnack inequality. As a consequence, we obtain that the dimension of space of harmonic functions on graphs with polynomial growth is finite, which original is a conjecture of Yau on Riemannian manifold proved by Colding and Minicozzi. Under the assumption of positive curvature on graphs, we derive the Bonnet-Myers type theorem that the diameter of graphs is finite and bounded above in terms of the positive curvature by proving some Log Sobolev inequalities.

Let G={h_t|t∈ℝ} be a continuous flow on a connected n-manifold M. The flow G is said to be strongly reversible by an involution τ if h_{−t}=τh_tτ for all t∈ℝ, and it is said to be periodic if h_s= identity for some s∈ℝ^∗. A closed subset K of M is called a global section for G if every orbit G(x) intersects K in exactly one point. In this paper, we study how the two properties “strongly reversible” and “has a global section” are related. In particular, we show that if G is periodic and strongly reversible by a reflection, then G has a global section.

We study the rigidity of polyhedral surfaces and the moduli space of polyhedral surfaces using variational principles. Curvature-like quantities for polyhedral surfaces are introduced and are shown to determine the polyhedral metric up to isometry. The action functionals in the variational approaches are derived from the cosine law. They can be considered as 2-dimensional counterparts of the Schlaefli formula.

It is shown that every non-compact hyperbolic manifold of finite volume has a finite cover admitting a geodesic ideal triangulation. Also, every hyperbolic manifold of finite volume with non-empty, totally geodesic boundary has a finite regular cover which has a geodesic partially truncated triangulation. The proofs use an extension of a result due to Long and Niblo concerning the separability of peripheral subgroups.

We show that solutions of Thurston's equation on triangulated 3-manifolds in a commutative ring carry topological information. We also introduce a homogeneous Thurston's equation and a commutative ring associated to triangulated 3-manifolds. It is shown that solutions to homogeneous equations over the real numbers are critical points of an entropy function.