Related papers: An $HP^2$-bundle over $S^4$ with nontrivial $\hat{…

We prove that group homology of the diffeomorphism group of $\#^g S^n \times S^n$ as a discrete group is independent of $g$ in a range, provided that $n>2$. This answers the high dimensional version of a question posed by Morita about…

We prove that the Euler characteristic of an even-dimensional compact manifold with positive (nonnegative) sectional curvature is positive (nonnegative) provided that the manifold admits an isometric action of a compact Lie group $G$ with…

Given a compact K\"ahler manifold $X$, there is an equivalence of categories between the completely reducible flat vector bundles on $X$ and the polystable Higgs bundles $(E,\, \theta)$ on $X$ with $c_1(E)= 0= c_2(E)$ \cite{SimC},…

We study the moduli space of trace-free irreducible rank 2 holomorphic connections over a complex projective curve of genus 2 and the forgetful map towards the moduli space of underlying vector bundles (including unstable bundles), for…

A non-trivial separable metric space $X$ is called an almost homology $n$-manifold if the homology groups $H_k(X,X\backslash\{x\},\mathbb Z)$ are trivial for all $x\in X$ and all $k=0,1,..,n-1$. We provide a necessary and sufficient…

A topological space (not necessarily simply connected) is said to have finite homotopy rank-sum if the sum of the ranks of all higher homotopy groups (from the second homotopy group onward) is finite. In this article, we characterize the…

Let $X$ be a compact connected Riemann surface of genus at least two, and let ${G}$ be a connected semisimple affine algebraic group defined over $\mathbb C$. For any $\delta \in \pi_1({G})$, we prove that the moduli space of semistable…

We classify homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of index 4 which admit an invariant almost hyper-Hermitian structure and an H-irreducible isotropy group. The main result is that all these spaces are flat except in dimension 12.

We give a criterion for a flat fibration with affine plane fibers over a smooth scheme defined over a field of characteristic zero to be a Zariski locally trivial $\mathbb{A}^2$-bundle. An application is a positive answer to a version of…

We study the asymptotic behavior of Hitchin's hyperk\"ahler metric on the moduli space of rank two irregular Higgs bundles over $\mathbb{C}P^1$. Along a generic curve, we prove that the Hitchin metric is asymptotic to the semiflat metric at…

For a semisimple complex algebraic group $G$ we determine the rational cohomology and the Hodge-Tate structure of the moduli stack ${\mathscr B}un_{G,X}$ of principal $G$-bundles over a connected smooth complex projective variety $X$ of…

The Chen-Ng\^o Conjecture predicts that the Hitchin morphism from the moduli stack of $G$-Higgs bundles on a smooth projective variety surjects onto the space of spectral data. The conjecture is known to hold for the group $GL_n$ and any…

This is a survey on known results and open problems about closed aspherical manifolds, i.e., connected closed manifolds whose universal coverings are contractible. Many examples come from certain kinds of non-positive curvature conditions.…

Diffeological spaces are generalizations of smooth manifolds. In this paper, we study the homotopy theory of diffeological spaces. We begin by proving basic properties of the smooth homotopy groups that we will need later. Then we introduce…

We study subgroups of fundamental groups of real analytic closed 4-manifolds with nonpositive sectional curvature. In particular, we are interested in the following question: if a subgroup of the fundamental group is not virtually free…

We formulate a conjecture that arithmetic locally symmetric manifolds have simple homotopy type, and prove it for the non-compact case. More precisely, we show that, for any symmetric space S of non-compact type without Euclidean de Rham…

It has been recently shown by Abresch and Rosenberg that a certain Hopf differential is holomorphic on every constant mean curvature surface in a Riemannian homogeneous 3-manifold with isometry group of dimension 4. In this paper we…

Let $S$ be a surface with $p_g(S)=q(S)=0$ and endowed with a very ample line bundle $\mathcal O_S(h)$ such that $h^1\big(S,\mathcal O_S(h)\big)=0$. We show that $S$ supports special (often stable) Ulrich bundles of rank $2$, extending a…

We show that the unit tangent bundle of S^4 and a real cohomology CP^3 admit Riemannian metrics with positive sectional curvature almost everywhere. These are the only examples so far with positive curvature almost everywhere that are not…

In this article, we study the Hitchin morphism over a smooth projective variety $X$. The Hitchin morphism is a map from the moduli space of Higgs bundles to the Hitchin base, which in general not surjective when the dimension of X is…