Let X be a smooth complex projective variety. Using a construction devised by Gathmann, we present a recursive formula for some of the Gromov–Witten invariants of X. We prove that, when X is homogeneous, this formula gives the number of osculating rational curves at a general point of a general hypersurface of X. This generalizes the classical well known pairs of inflection (asymptotic) lines for surfaces in P^3 of Salmon, as well as Darboux’s 27 osculating conics.

By a case-free approach we give a precise description of the closure of a Steinberg fiber within a twisted wonderful compactification of a simple linear algebraic group. In the nontwisted case this description was earlier obtained by the first author.

We survey the theory of complex manifolds that are related to Riemann surface, Hodge theory, Chern class, Kodaira embedding and HirzebruchRiemannRoch, and some modern development of uniformization theorems, KhlerEinstein metric and the theory of DonaldsonUhlenbeckYau on Hermitian YangMills connections. We emphasize mathematical ideas related to physics. At the end, we identify possible future research directions and raise some important open questions.

No abstract uploaded!

This paper is a contribution to the general problem of giving an explicit description of the basic locus in the reduction modulo p of Shimura varieties. Motivated by\cite {Vollaard-Wedhorn} and\cite {Rapoport-Terstiege-Wilson}, we classify the cases where the basic locus is (in a natural way) the union of classical Deligne-Lusztig sets associated to Coxeter elements. We show that if this is satisfied, then the Newton strata and Ekedahl-Oort strata have many nice properties.