The positive mass theorem states that for a nontrivial isolated physical system, the total energy, which includes contributions from both matter and gravitation is positive. This assertion was demonstrated in our previous paper in the important case when the space-time admits a maximal slice. Here this assumption is removed and the general theorem is demonstrated. Abstracts of the results of this paper appeared in [11] and [13].

We consider the Cauchy problem for the massless scalar wave equation in the Kerr geometry for smooth initial data compactly supported outside the event horizon. We prove that the solutions decay in time in <i>L</i>  _loc. The proof is based on a representation of the solution as an infinite sum over the angular momentum modes, each of which is an integral of the energy variable <i></i> on the real line. This integral representation involves solutions of the radial and angular ODEs which arise in the separation of variables.

We describe two simple obstructions to the existence of Ricci-flat Khler cone metrics on isolated Gorenstein singularities or, equivalently, to the existence of Sasaki-Einstein metrics on the links of these singularities. In particular, this also leads to new obstructions for KhlerEinstein metrics on Fano orbifolds. We present several families of hypersurface singularities that are obstructed, including 3-fold and 4-fold singularities of ADE type that have been studied previously in the physics literature. We show that the AdS/CFT dual of one obstruction is that the Rcharge of a gauge invariant chiral primary operator violates the unitarity bound.

We investigate the structure of the higher genus topological string amplitudes on the quintic hypersurface. It is shown that the partition functions of the higher genus than one can be expressed as polynomials of five generators. We also compute the explicit polynomial forms of the partition functions for genus 2, 3, and 4. Moreover, some coefficients are written down for all genus.

In their proposed compactification of superstrings [4], Candelas, Horowitz, Strominger and Witten took the matric product of a maximal symmetric four dimensional spacetime M with a six dimensional CalabiYau vacua X as the ten dimensional spacetime; they identified the YangMills connection with the SU (3) connection of the CalabiYau metric and set the dilaton to be a constant. To make this theory compatible with the standard grand unified field theory, Witten [28] and HoravaWitten [20] proposed to use higher rank bundles for strong coupled heterotic string theory so that the gauge groups can be SU (4) or SU (5). Mathematically, this approach relies on UhlenbeckYaus theorem on constructing HermitianYangMills connections on stable bundles [27]. Many authors, including Friedman, Morgan and Witten [18]; Donagi, Ovrat, Pantev and Reinbacher [12]; Andreas [1], Kachru [21] and others, have worked