We introduce the notion of families of $n$-marked smooth rational tropical curves over smooth tropical varieties and establish a one-to-one correspondence between (equivalence classes of) these families and morphisms from smooth tropical varieties into the moduli space of $n$-marked abstract rational tropical curves $\mathcal{M}_{n}$.

The moduli space of smooth real binary octics has five connected components. They parametrize the real binary octics whose defining equations have $0,\dots,4$ complex-conjugate pairs of roots respectively. We show that each of these five components has a real hyperbolic structure in the sense that each is isomorphic as a real-analytic manifold to the quotient of an open dense subset of $5$-dimensional real hyperbolic space $\mathbb{RH}^5$ by the action of an arithmetic subgroup of $\operatorname{Isom}(\mathbb{RH}^5)$. These subgroups are commensurable to discrete hyperbolic reflection groups, and the Vinberg diagrams of the latter are computed.

Let $\mathcal{F}$ be a coherent rank $2$ sheaf on a scheme $Y \subset \mathbb{P}^{n}$ of dimension at least two and let $X \subset Y$ be the zero set of a section $\sigma \in H^0(\mathcal{F})$. In this paper, we study the relationship between the functor that deforms the pair $(\mathcal{F},\sigma)$ and the two functors that deform $\mathcal{F}$ on $Y$, and $X$ in $Y$, respectively. By imposing some conditions on two forgetful maps between the functors, we prove that the scheme structure of \emph{e.g.,} the moduli scheme ${\rm M_Y}(P)$ of stable sheaves on a threefold $Y$ at $(\mathcal{F})$, and the scheme structure at $(X)$ of the Hilbert scheme of curves on $Y$ become closely related. Using this relationship, we get criteria for the dimension and smoothness of $ {\rm M_{Y}}(P)$ at $(\mathcal{F})$, without assuming $ {\textrm{Ext}^2}(\mathcal{F} ,\mathcal{F} ) = 0$. For reflexive sheaves on $Y=\mathbb{P}^{3}$ whose deficiency module $M = H_{*}^1(\mathcal{F})$ satisfies $ {_{0}\! \textrm{Ext}^2}(M ,M ) = 0 $ (\emph{e.g.,} of diameter at most 2), we get necessary and sufficient conditions of unobstructedness that coincide in the diameter one case. The conditions are further equivalent to the vanishing of certain graded Betti numbers of the free graded minimal resolution of $H_{*}^0(\mathcal{F})$. Moreover, we show that every irreducible component of ${\rm M}_{\mathbb{P}^{3}}(P)$ containing a reflexive sheaf of diameter one is reduced (generically smooth) and we compute its dimension. We also determine a good lower bound for the dimension of any component of ${\rm M}_{\mathbb{P}^{3}}(P)$ that contains a reflexive stable sheaf with ``small'' deficiency module $M$.

In this paper, we characterize unitary representations of $\pi:=\piS$ whose generators $u_1, \dots, u_l$ (lying in conjugacy classes fixed initially) can be decomposed as products of two Lagrangian involutions $u_j=\s_j\s_{j+1}$ with $\s_{l+1}=\s_1$. Our main result is that such representations are exactly the elements of the fixed-point set of an anti-symplectic involution defined on the moduli space $\Mod:=\Hom_{\mathcal C}(\pi,U(n))/U(n)$. Consequently, as this fixed-point set is non-empty, it is a Lagrangian submanifold of $\Mod$. To prove this, we use the quasi-Hamiltonian description of the symplectic structure of $\Mod$ and give conditions on an involution defined on a quasi-Hamiltonian $U$-space $(M, \w, \mu\from M \to U)$ for it to induce an anti-symplectic involution on the reduced space $M/\!/U := \mu^{-1}(\{1\})/U$.

We study the connectedness of the moduli space of gauge equivalence classes of flat $G$-connections on a compact orientable surface or a compact nonorientable surface for a class of compact connected Lie groups. This class includes all the compact, connected, simply connected Lie groups, and some non-semisimple classical groups.