We consider surfaces M2 immersed in En c × R, where En c is a simply connected n-dimensional complete Riemannian manifold with constant sectional curvature c 6= 0, and assume that the mean curvature vector of the immersion is parallel in the normal bundle. We consider further a Hopf-type complex quadratic form Q on M2, where the complex structure of M2 is compatible with the induced metric. It is not hard to check that Q is holomorphic (see [3], p.289). We will use this fact to give a reasonable description of immersed surfaces in En c ×R that have parallel mean curvature vector.

On a compact K¨ahler manifold we introduce a cohomological obstruction to the solvability of the constant scalar curvature (cscK) equation twisted by a semipositive form, appearing in works of Fine and Song-Tian. As a special case we find an obstruction for a manifold to be the base of a holomorphic submersion carrying a cscK metric in certain “adiabatic” classes. We apply this to find new examples of general type threefolds with classes which do not admit a cscK representative. When the twist vanishes our obstruction extends the slope stability of Ross-Thomas to effective divisors on a K¨ahler manifold. Thus we find examples of non-projective slope unstable manifolds.

We prove that the second positive Neumann eigenvalue of a bounded simply-connected planar domain of a given area does not exceed the first positive Neumann eigenvalue on a disk of half this area. The estimate is sharp and attained by a sequence of domains degenerating to a union of two identical disks. In particular, this result implies the P´olya conjecture for the second Neumann eigenvalue. The proof is based on a combination of analytic and topological arguments. As a by-product of our method we obtain an upper bound on the second eigenvalue for conformally round metrics on odd-dimensional spheres.

In this paper we study compact Sasaki manifolds in view of transverse K¨ahler geometry and extend some results in K¨ahler geometry to Sasaki manifolds. In particular we define integral invariants which obstruct the existence of transverse K¨ahler metric with harmonic Chern forms. The integral invariant f1 for the first Chern class case becomes an obstruction to the existence of transverse K¨ahler metric of constant scalar curvature. We prove the existence of transverse K¨ahler-Ricci solitons (or Sasaki-Ricci soliton) on compact toric Sasaki manifolds whose basic first Chern form of the normal bundle of the Reeb foliation is positive and the first Chern class of the contact bundle is trivial. We will further show that if S is a compact toric Sasaki manifold with the above assumption then by deforming the Reeb field we get a Sasaki-Einstein structure on S. As an application we obtain Sasaki-Einstein metrics on the U(1)-bundles associated with the canonical line bundles of toric Fano manifolds, including as a special case an irregular toric Sasaki-Einstein metrics on the unit circle bundle associated with the canonical bundle of the two-point blow-up of the complex projective plane.

We solve the Plateau problem for marginally outer trapped surfaces in general Cauchy data sets. We employ the Perron method and tools from geometric measure theory to force and control a blow-up of Jang’s equation. Substantial new geometric insights regarding the lower order properties of marginally outer trapped surfaces are gained in the process. The techniques developed in this paper are flexible and can be adapted to other non-variational existence problems.