In this article our main goal is to establish an L2 version of the twisted invariance of plurigenera. We equally simplify the original “two towers” approach of Yum-Tong Siu.

If an (n + 2)-dimensional Lorentzian manifold is indecomposable, but non-irreducible, then its holonomy algebra is contained in the parabolic algebra (R⊕so(n)).Rn. We show that its projection onto so(n) is the holonomy algebra of a Riemannian manifold. This leads to a classification of Lorentzian holonomy groups and implies that the holonomy group of an indecomposable Lorentzian spin manifold with parallel spinor equals to G . Rn where G is a product of SU(p), Sp(q), G2 or Spin(7).

We apply a study of orders in quaternion algebras, to the differential geometry of Riemann surfaces. The least length of a closed geodesic on a hyperbolic surface is called its systole,and denoted sysπ1. P. Buser and P. Sarnak constructed Riemann surfaces X whose systole behaves logarithmically in the genus g(X). The Fuchsian groups in their examples are principal congruence subgroups of a fixed arithmetic group with rational trace field. We generalize their construction to principal congruence subgroups of arbitrary arithmetic surfaces. The key tool is a new trace estimate valid for an arbitrary ideal in a quaternion algebra. We obtain a particularly sharp bound for a principal congruence tower of Hurwitz surfaces (PCH), namely the 4/3bound sysπ1(XPCH) ≥ 43 log(g(XPCH)). Similar results are obtained for the systole of hyperbolic 3-manifolds, relative to their simplicial volume.

Let H be a semisimple algebraic group. We prove the semistable reduction theorem for μ–semistable principal H–bundles over a smooth projective variety X defined over the field C. When X is a smooth projective surface and H is simple, we construct the algebro–geometric Donaldson–Uhlenbeck compactification of the moduli space of μ–semistable principal H–bundles with fixed char- acteristic classes and describe its points. For large characteristic classes we show that the moduli space of μ–stable principal H–bundles is non–empty.

Let (M, ω) be a compact symplectic 4-manifold with a compatible almost complex structure J. The problem of finding a J-compatible symplectic form with prescribed volume form is an almost-K¨ahler analogue of Yau’s theorem and is connected to a programme in symplectic topology proposed by Donaldson. We call the corresponding equation for the symplectic form the Calabi- Yau equation. Solutions are unique in their cohomology class. It is shown in this paper that a solution to this equation exists if the Nijenhuis tensor is small in a certain sense. Without this assumption, it is shown that the problem of existence can be reduced to obtaining a C0 bound on a scalar potential function.