We study separable metric spaces with few types of countable dense sets. We present a structure theorem for locally compact spaces having precisely $n$ types of countable dense sets: such a space contains a subset $S$ of size at most $n{-}1$ such that $S$ is invariant under all homeomorphisms of $X$ and $X\setminus S$ is countable dense homogeneous. We prove that every Borel space having fewer than $\mathfrak{c}$ types of countable dense sets is Polish. The natural question of whether every Polish space has either countably many or $\mathfrak{c}$ many types of countable dense sets, is shown to be closely related to Topological Vaught's Conjecture.

We define and study the so-called extreme version of the notion of a projective normed module. The relevant definition takes into account the exact value of the norm of the module in question, in contrast with the standard known definition that is formulated in terms of norm topology. After the discussion of the case where our normed algebra $A$ is just $\mathbb{C}$, we concentrate on the case of the next degree of complication, where $A$ is a sequence algebra, satisfying some natural conditions. The main results give a full characterization of extremely projective objects within the subcategory of the category of non-degenerate normed $A$--modules, consisting of the so-called homogeneous modules. We consider two cases, `non-complete' and `complete', and the respective answers turn out to be essentially different. In particular, all Banach non-degenerate homogeneous modules, consisting of sequences, are extremely projective within the category of Banach non-degenerate homogeneous modules. However, neither of them, provided it is infinite-dimensional, is extremely projective within the category of all normed non-degenerate homogeneous modules. On the other hand, submodules of these modules, consisting of finite sequences, are extremely projective within the latter category.

In this paper we give an explicit formula for the flag curvature of homogeneous Randers spaces of Douglas type and apply this formula to obtain some interesting results. We first deduce an explicit formula for the flag curvature of an arbitrary left invariant Randers metric on a two-step nilpotent Lie group. Then we obtain a classification of negatively curved homogeneous Randers spaces of Douglas type. This results, in particular, in many examples of homogeneous non-Riemannian Finsler spaces with negative flag curvature. Finally, we prove a rigidity result that a homogeneous Randers space of Berwald type whose flag curvature is everywhere nonzero must be Riemannian.

In this paper we study the extension problem, the averaging problem, and the generalized Erdős-Falconer distance problem associated with arbitrary homogeneous varieties in three dimensional vector spaces over finite fields. In the case when the varieties do not contain any plane passing through the origin, we obtain the best possible results on the aforementioned three problems. In particular, our result on the extension problem modestly generalizes the result by Mockenhaupt and Tao who studied the particular conical extension problem. In addition, investigating the Fourier decay on homogeneous varieties enables us to give complete mapping properties of averaging operators. Moreover, we improve the size condition on a set such that the cardinality of its distance set is nontrivial.

We study the geometry of non-reductive $4$-dimensional homogeneous spaces. In particular, after describing their Levi-Civita connection and curvature properties, we classify homogeneous Ricci solitons on these spaces, proving the existence of shrinking, expanding and steady examples. For all the non-trivial examples we find, the Ricci operator is diagonalizable.

Let $\mathcal{D}$ be the $n$-dimensional Lie ball and let $\mathbf{B}(S)$ be the space of hyperfunctions on the Shilov boundary $S$ of $\mathcal{D}$. The aim of this paper is to give a necessary and sufficient condition on the generalized Poisson transform $P_{l,\lambda}f$ of an element $f$ in the space $\mathbf{B}(S)$ for $f$ to be in $ L^{p}(S)$, $1 > p > \infty.$ Namely, if $F$ is the Poisson transform of some $f\in \mathbf{B}(S)$ (i.e., $F=P_{l,\lambda}f$), then for any $l\in \mathbb{Z}$ and $\lambda\in \mathbb{C}$ such that $\mathcal{R}e[i\lambda] > \frac{n}{2}-1$, we show that $f\in L^{p}(S)$ if and only if $f$ satisfies the growth condition $$ \|F\|_{\lambda,p}=\sup_{0\leq r < 1}(1-r^{2})^{\mathcal{R}e[i\lambda]-\frac{n}{2}+l}\Big[\int_{S}|F(ru)|^{p}du \Big]^{\frac{1}{p}} < +\infty. $$

We prove that the quantum cohomology ring of any minuscule or cominuscule homogeneous space, specialized at $q=1$, is semisimple. This implies that complex conjugation defines an algebra automorphism of the quantum cohomology ring localized at the quantum parameter. We check that this involution coincides with the strange duality defined in our previous article. We deduce Vafa--Intriligator type formulas for the Gromov--Witten invariants.

A new decomposition, the \emph{mutually aposyndetic decomposition} of homogeneous continua into closed, homogeneous sets is introduced. This decomposition is respected by homeomorphisms and topologically unique. Its quotient is a mutually aposyndetic homogeneous continuum, and in all known examples, as well as in some general cases, the members of the decomposition are semi-indecomposable continua. As applications, we show that hereditarily decomposable homogeneous continua and path connected homogeneous continua are mutually aposyndetic. A class of new examples of homogeneous continua is defined. The mutually aposyndetic decomposition of each of these continua is non-trivial and different from Jones' aposyndetic decomposition.

A Riemannian manifold $(M,\rho)$ is called Einstein if the metric $\rho$ satisfies the condition \linebreak$\Ric (\rho)=c\cdot \rho$ for some constant $c$. This paper is devoted to the investigation of $G$-invariant Einstein metrics, with additional symmetries, on some homogeneous spaces $G/H$ of classical groups. As a consequence, we obtain new invariant Einstein metrics on some Stiefel manifolds $\SO(n)/\SO(l)$. Furthermore, we show that for any positive integer $p$ there exists a Stiefel manifold $\SO(n)/\SO(l)$ that admits at least $p$ $\SO(n)$-invariant Einstein metrics.

We present a structure theorem for a broad class of homeomorphisms of finite order on countable zero dimensional spaces. As applications we show the following. \begin{compactenum}[\rm(a)] \item Every countable nondiscrete topological group not containing an open Boolean subgroup can be partitioned into infinitely many dense subsets. \item If $G$ is a countably infinite Abelian group with finitely many elements of order $2$ and $\beta G$ is the Stone--\v Cech compactification of $G$ as a discrete semigroup, then for every idempotent $p\in\beta G\setminus\{0\}$, the subset $\{p,-p\}\subset\beta G$ generates algebraically the free product of one-element semigroups $\{p\}$ and~$\{-p\}$. \end{compactenum}

A method, due to \'Elie Cartan, is used to give an algebraic classification of the non-reductive homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of dimension four. Only one case with Lorentz signature can be Einstein without having constant curvature, and two cases with $(2,2)$ signature are Einstein of which one is Ricci-flat. If a four-dimensional non-reductive homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifold is simply connected, then it is shown to be diffeomorphic to $\reals^4$. All metrics for the simply connected non-reductive Einstein spaces are given explicitly. There are no non-reductive pseudo-Riemannian homogeneous spaces of dimension two and none of dimension three with connected isotropy subgroup.

The main problem that is solved in this paper has the following simple formulation (which is not used in its solution). The group $K = \mathrm{O}_p ({\bf C}) \times \mathrm{O}_q ({\bf C})$ acts on the space $M_{p,q}$ of $p\times q$ complex matrices by $(a,b) \cdot x = axb^{-1}$, and so does its identity component $K^0 = \SO_p ({\bf C}) \times \SO_q ({\bf C})$. A $K$-orbit (or $K^0$-orbit) in $M_{p,q}$ is said to be nilpotent if its closure contains the zero matrix. The closure, $\overline{\mathcal{O}}$, of a nilpotent $K$-orbit (resp.\ $K^0$-orbit) ${\mathcal{O}}$ in $M_{p,q}$ is a union of ${\mathcal{O}}$ and some nilpotent $K$-orbits (resp.\ $K^0$-orbits) of smaller dimensions. The description of the closure of nilpotent $K$-orbits has been known for some time, but not so for the nilpotent $K^0$-orbits. A conjecture describing the closure of nilpotent $K^0$-orbits was proposed in \cite{DLS} and verified when $\min(p,q) \le 7$. In this paper we prove the conjecture. The proof is based on a study of two prehomogeneous vector spaces attached to $\mathcal{O}$ and determination of the basic relative invariants of these spaces. The above problem is equivalent to the problem of describing the closure of nilpotent orbits in the real Lie algebra $\mathfrak{so} (p,q)$ under the adjoint action of the identity component of the real orthogonal group $\mathrm{O}(p,q)$.