Let F :RN→RN be a locally Lipschitz continuous function. We prove that F is a global homeomorphism or only injective, under suitable assumptions on the subdifferential ∂F(x). We use variational methods, nonsmooth inverse function theorem and extensions of the Hadamard-Levy Theorem. We also address questions on the Markus-Yamabe conjecture.

Let A 1, A 2 be standard operator algebras on complex Banach spaces X 1, X 2, respectively. For k 2, let (i 1,, i m) be a sequence with terms chosen from {1,, k}, and define the generalized Jordan product T 1 T k= T i 1 T i m+ T i m T i 1 on elements in A i. This includes the usual Jordan product A 1 A 2= A 1 A 2+ A 2 A 1, and the triple {A 1, A 2, A 3}= A 1 A 2 A 3+ A 3 A 2 A 1. Assume that at least one of the terms in (i 1,, i m) appears exactly once. Let a map : A 1 A 2 satisfy that ( (A 1) (A k))= (A 1 A k) whenever any one of A 1,, A k has rank at most one. It is shown in this paper that if the range of contains all operators of rank at most three, then must be a Jordan isomorphism multiplied by an m th root of unity. Similar results for maps between self-adjoint operators acting on Hilbert spaces are also obtained.

We provide an explicit desingularization and study the resulting fiber geometry of elliptically fibered four-folds defined by Weierstrass models admitting a split ilde {A} _4 singularity over a divisor of the discriminant locus. Such varieties are used to geometrically engineer SU (5) grand unified theories in F-theory. The desingularization is given by a small resolution of singularities. The ilde {A} _4 fiber naturally appears after resolving the singularities in codimension-one in the base. The remaining higher codimension singularities are then beautifully described by a four-dimensional affine binomial variety which leads to six different small resolutions of the elliptically fibered four-fold. These six small resolutions define distinct four-folds connected to each other by a network of flop transitions forming a dihedral group. The location of these exotic fibers in the base is mapped to conifold points of the three-folds that defines the type IIB

We study some arithmetic properties of the mirror maps and the quantum Yukawa couplings for some 1-parameter deformations of Calabi-Yau manifolds. First we use the Schwarzian differential equation, which we derived previously, to characterize the mirror map in each case. For algebraic K3 surfaces, we solve the equation in terms of the<i>J</i>-function. By deriving explicit modular relations we prove that some K3 mirror maps are algebraic over the genus zero function field<b>Q</b>(<i>J</i>). This leads to a uniform proof that those mirror maps have integral Fourier coefficients. Regarding the maps as Riemann mappings, we prove that they are genus zero functions. By virtue of the Conway-Norton conjecture (proved by Borcherds using Frenkel-Lepowsky-Meurman's Moonshine module), we find that these maps are actually the reciprocals of the Thompson series for certain conjugacy classes in the Griess-Fischer group

The authors proved in [5] that in a complete, connected, and simply connected Riemannian manifold, the volume of the intersection of two small geodesic balls depends only on the distance between the centers and the radii if and only if the space is harmonic. In this paper, we show that this proposition remains true, if the condition is restricted to balls of equal radii.