Consider electromagnetic waves in two-dimensional honeycomb structured media. The properties of transverse electric (TE) polarized waves are determined by the spectral properties of the elliptic operator L^A=-\nabla_x·A(x) \nabla_x, where A(x) is Λ_h− periodic (Λ_h denotes the equilateral triangular lattice), and such that with respect to some origin of coordinates, A(x) is PC− invariant (A(x)=\overline{A(-x)}) and 120° rotationally invariant (A(R*x)=R*A(x)R, where R is a 120° rotation in the plane). We first obtain results on the existence, stability and instability of Dirac points, conical intersections between two adjacent Floquet-Bloch dispersion surfaces. We then show that the introduction through small and slow variations of a domain wall across a line-defect gives rise to the bifurcation from Dirac points of highly robust (topologically protected) edge states. These are time-harmonic solutions of Maxwell's equations which are propagating parallel to the line-defect and spatially localized transverse to it. The transverse localization and strong robustness to perturbation of these edge states is rooted in the protected zero mode of a one-dimensional effective Dirac operator with spatially varying mass term. These results imply the existence of uni-directional propagating edge states for two classes of time-reversal invariant media in which C symmetry is broken: magneto-optic media and bi-anisotropic media. Our analysis applies and extends the tools previously developed in the context of honeycomb Schrödinger operators.

We impose constraints on the odd coordinates of super-Teichmüller space in the uniformization picture for the monodromies around Ramond punctures, thus reducing the overall odd dimension to be compatible with that of the moduli spaces of super Riemann surfaces. Namely, the monodromy of a puncture must be a true parabolic element of the canonical subgroup SL(2 , R) of OSp(1\2).

We prove a rigidity theorem in Poisson geometry around compact Poisson submanifolds, using the Nash–Moser fast convergence method. In the case of one-point submanifolds (fixed points), this implies a stronger version of Conn’s linearization theorem [2], also proving that Conn’s theorem is a manifestation of a rigidity phenomenon; similarly, in the case of arbitrary symplectic leaves, it gives a stronger version of the local normal form theorem [7]. We can also use the rigidity theorem to compute the Poisson moduli space of the sphere in the dual of a compact semisimple Lie algebra [17].

We find some integrability conditions for low-dimensional manifolds to admit metrics with nonnegative scalar curvature. In particular, we solve the positive action conjecture in general relativity in the affirmative.

We show that the discrete Kadomtsev--Petviashvili (KP) equation with sources obtained in \cite{Hu2006} by the "source generalization" method can be incorporated into the squared eigenfunctions symmetry extension procedure. Moreover, using the known correspondence between Darboux-type transformations and additional independent variables, we demonstrate that the equation with sources can be derived from Hirota's discrete KP equations but in a space of bigger dimension. In this way we uncover the origin of the source terms as coming from multidimensional consistency of the Hirota system itself.