We develop foundational theory for the Laplacian flow for closed G2 structures which will be essential for future study. (1). We prove Shi-type derivative estimates for the Riemann curvature tensor Rm and torsion tensor T along the flow, i.e. that a bound on Λ(x,t)=(|∇T(x,t)|^2g(t)+|Rm(x,t)|^2g(t))^{1/2} will imply bounds on all covariant derivatives of Rm and T. (2). We show that Λ(x,t) will blow up at a finite-time singularity, so the flow will exist as long as Λ(x,t) remains bounded. (3). We give a new proof of forward uniqueness and prove backward uniqueness of the flow, and give some applications. (4). We prove a compactness theorem for the flow and use it to strengthen our long time existence result from (2) to show that the flow will exist as long as the velocity of the flow remains bounded. (5). Finally, we study soliton solutions of the Laplacian flow.

We consider the flow of closed convex hypersurfaces in Euclidean space R^{n+1} with speed given by a power of the k-th mean curvature E_k plus a global term chosen to impose a constraint involving the enclosed volume V_{n+1} and the mixed volume V_{n+1−k} of the evolving hypersurface. We prove that if the initial hypersurface is strictly convex, then the solution of the flow exists for all time and converges to a round sphere smoothly. No curvature pinching assumption is required on the initial hypersurface.

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We show that Thurston’s skinning maps of Teichmüller space have finite fibers. The proof centers around a study of two subvarieties of the $${{\rm SL}_2(\mathbb{C})}$$ character variety of a surface—one associated with complex projective structures, and the other associated with a 3-manifold. Using the Morgan–Shalen compactification of the character variety and author’s results on holonomy limits of complex projective structures, we show that these subvarieties have only a discrete set of intersections.

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