We explicitly describe the best approximation in geodesic submanifolds of positive definite matrices obtained from involutive congruence transformations on the Cartan-Hadamard manifold ${\mathrm{Sym}}(n,{\Bbb R})^{++}$ of positive definite matrices. An explicit calculation for the minimal distance function from the geodesic submanifold ${\mathrm{Sym}}(p,{\mathbb R})^{++}\times {\mathrm{Sym}}(q,{\mathbb R})^{++}$ block diagonally embedded in ${\mathrm{Sym}}(n,{\mathbb R})^{++}$ is given in terms of metric and spectral geometric means, Cayley transform, and Schur complements of positive definite matrices when $p\leq 2$ or $q\leq 2.$

The Heisenberg group is considered as the boundary of a manifold. A class of hypersurfaces in this manifold can be regarded as copies of the Heisenberg group. The properties of geodesics in the interior and on the hypersurfaces are worked out in detail. These properties are strongly related to those of the Heisenberg group.

We study the Riemannian Laplace-Beltrami operator $L$ on a Riemannian manifold with Heisenberg group $H_1$ as boundary. We calculate the heat kernel and Green's function for $L$, and give global and small time estimates of the heat kernel. A class of hypersurfaces in this manifold can be regarded as approximations of $H_1$. We also restrict $L$ to each hypersurface and calculate the corresponding heat kernel and Green's function. We will see that the heat kernel and Green's function converge to the heat kernel and Green's function on the boundary.

In this article we are concerned with how to compute the cohomology ring of a symplectic quotient by a circle action using the information we have about the cohomology of the original manifold and some data at the fixed point set of the action. Our method is based on the Tolman-Weitsman theorem which gives a characterization of the kernel of the Kirwan map. First we compute a generating set for the kernel of the Kirwan map for the case of product of compact connected manifolds such that the cohomology ring of each of them is generated by a degree two class. We assume the fixed point set is isolated; however the circle action only needs to be ``formally Hamiltonian''. By identifying the kernel, we obtain the cohomology ring of the symplectic quotient. Next we apply this result to some special cases and in particular to the case of products of two dimensional spheres. We show that the results of Kalkman and Hausmann-Knutson are special cases of our result.

In this paper, we consider the set $\mathcal{S} = a(e^X K e^Y)$ where $a(g)$ is the abelian part in the Cartan decomposition of $g$. This is exactly the support of the measure intervening in the product formula for the spherical functions on symmetric spaces of noncompact type. We give a simple description of that support in the case of $\SL(3,\mathbf{F})$ where $\mathbf{F} = \mathbf{R}$, $\mathbf{C}$ or $\mathbf{H}$. In particular, we show that $\mathcal{S}$ is convex. We also give an application of our result to the description of singular values of a product of two arbitrary matrices with prescribed singular values.

We provide an explicit thick and thin decomposition for oriented hyperbolic manifolds $M$ of dimension $5$. The result implies improved universal lower bounds for the volume $\rmvol_5(M)$ and, for $M$ compact, new estimates relating the injectivity radius and the diameter of $M$ with $\rmvol_5(M)$. The quantification of the thin part is based upon the identification of the isometry group of the universal space by the matrix group $\PS_\Delta {\rm L} (2,\mathbb{H})$ of quaternionic $2\times 2$-matrices with Dieudonn\'e determinant $\Delta$ equal to $1$ and isolation properties of $\PS_\Delta {\rm L} (2,\mathbb{H})$.

The method of moving frames, introduced by Elie Cartan, is a powerful tool for the solution of various equivalence problems. The practical implementation of Cartan's method, however, remains challenging, despite its later significant development and generalization. This paper presents two new variations on the Fels and Olver algorithm, which under some conditions on the group action, simplify a moving frame construction. In addition, the first algorithm leads to a better understanding of invariant differential forms on the jet bundles, while the second expresses the differential invariants for the entire group in terms of the differential invariants of its subgroup.

In the paper, we study the shortest time problem on a Riemannian space with an external force. We show that such problem can be converted to a shortest path problem on a Randers space. By choosing an appropriate external force on the Euclidean space, we obtain a non-trivial Randers metric of zero flag curvature. We also show that any positively complete Randers metric with zero flag curvature must be locally Minkowskian.

On d\'emontre un th\'eor\`eme de Vorono\"\i\ (caract\'erisation des maxima locaux de l'invariant d'Hermite) pour les familles de r\'eseaux param\'etr\'ees par les espaces sym\'etriques irr\'e\-ductibles non exceptionnels de type non compact. We prove a theorem of Vorono\"\i\ type (characterisation of local maxima of the Hermite invariant) for the lattices parametrized by irreducible nonexceptional symmetric spaces of noncompact type.

A quasi-Poisson manifold is a $G$-manifold equipped with an invariant bivector field whose Schouten bracket is the trivector field generated by the invariant element in $\wedge^3 \g$ associated to an invariant inner product. We introduce the concept of the fusion of such manifolds, and we relate the quasi-Poisson manifolds to the previously introduced quasi-Hamiltonian manifolds with group-valued moment maps.

We study the symplectic geometry of the moduli spaces $M_r=M_r(\s^3)$ of closed $n$-gons with fixed side-lengths in the $3$-sphere. We prove that these moduli spaces have symplectic structures obtained by reduction of the fusion product of $n$ conjugacy classes in $\SU(2)$ by the diagonal conjugation action of $\SU(2)$. Here the fusion product of $n$ conjugacy classes is a Hamiltonian quasi-Poisson $\SU(2)$-manifold in the sense of \cite{AKSM}. An integrable Hamiltonian system is constructed on $M_r$ in which the Hamiltonian flows are given by bending polygons along a maximal collection of nonintersecting diagonals. Finally, we show the symplectic structure on $M_r$ relates to the symplectic structure obtained from gauge-theoretic description of $M_r$. The results of this paper are analogues for the $3$-sphere of results obtained for $M_r(\h^3)$, the moduli space of $n$-gons with fixed side-lengths in hyperbolic $3$-space \cite{KMT}, and for $M_r(\E^3)$, the moduli space of $n$-gons with fixed side-lengths in $\E^3$ \cite{KM1}.

We show that the Seiberg-Witten invariants of a lens space determine and are determined by its Casson-Walker invariant and its Reidemeister-Turaev torsion.

Let $(M_n,g)$ be a strictly convex riemannian manifold with $C^{\infty}$ boundary. We prove the existence\break of classical solution for the nonlinear elliptic partial differential equation of Monge-Amp\`ere:\break $\det (-u\delta^i_j + \nabla^i_ju) = F(x,\nabla u;u)$ in $M$ with a Neumann condition on the boundary of the form $\frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu} = \varphi (x,u)$, where $F \in C^{\infty} (TM \times \bbR)$ is an everywhere strictly positive function satisfying some assumptions, $\nu$ stands for the unit normal vector field and $\varphi \in C^{\infty} (\partial M \times \bbR)$ is a non-decreasing function in $u$.

We consider germs of mappings of a line to contact space and classify the first simple singularities up to the action of contactomorphisms in the target space and diffeomorphisms of the line. Even in these first cases there arises a new interesting interaction of local commutative algebra with contact structure.

In this article, we derive a Brunn-Minkowski type theorem for sets bearing some relation to the causal structure on the Minkowski spacetime $\mathbb{L}^{n+1}$. We also present an isoperimetric inequality in the Minkowski spacetime $\mathbb{L}^{n+1}$ as a consequence of this Brunn-Minkowski type theorem.

Turbiner's conjecture posits that a Lie-algebraic Hamiltonian operator whose domain is a subset of the Euclidean plane admits a separation of variables. A proof of this conjecture is given in those cases where the generating Lie-algebra acts imprimitively. The general form of the conjecture is false. A counter-example is given based on the trigonometric Olshanetsky-Perelomov potential corresponding to the $A_2$ root system.

In this paper we introduce the concepts of hyperbolic and elliptic areas and prove uncountably many new geometric isoperimetric inequalities on the surfaces of constant curvature.

In the first paper with the same title the authors were able to determine all partially oriented flag manifolds that are stably parallelizable or parallelizable, apart from four infinite families that were undecided. Here, using more delicate techniques (mainly K-theory), we settle these previously undecided families and show that none of the manifolds in them is stably parallelizable, apart from one 30-dimensional manifold which still remains undecided.

In this work we study the geodesic flow on $n$-dimensional ideal polyhedra and establish classical (for manifolds of negative curvature) results concerning the distribution of closed orbits of the flow.

We give explicit combinatorial expresssions for the characteristic cycles associated to certain canonical sheaves on Schubert varieties $X$ in the classical Hermitian symmetric spaces: namely the intersection homology sheaves $IH_X$ and the constant sheaves $\Bbb C_X$. The three main cases of interest are the Hermitian symmetric spaces for groups of type $A_n$ (the standard Grassmannian), $C_n$ (the Lagrangian Grassmannian) and $D_n$. In particular we find that $CC(IH_X)$ is irreducible for all Schubert varieties $X$ if and only if the associated Dynkin diagram is simply laced. The result for Schubert varieties in the standard Grassmannian had been established earlier by Bressler, Finkelberg and Lunts, while the computations in the $C_n$ and $D_n$ cases are new. Our approach is to compute $CC(\Bbb C_X)$ by a direct geometric method, then to use the combinatorics of the Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials (simplified for Hermitian symmetric spaces) to compute $CC(IH_X)$. The geometric method is based on the fundamental formula $$CC(\Bbb C_X) = \lim_{r\downarrow 0} CC(\Bbb C_{X_r}),$$ where the $X_r \downarrow X$ constitute a family of tubes around the variety $X$. This formula leads at once to an expression for the coefficients of $CC(\Bbb C_X)$ as the degrees of certain singular maps between spheres.

In \cite{Anker}, Jean-Philippe Anker conjectures an upper bound for the heat kernel of a symmetric space of noncompact type. We show in this paper that his prediction is verified for the space of positive definite $n\times n$ real matrices.