Complex Contact And Symmetric Manifolds

* Contains research and survey articles by well known and respected mathematicians on recent developments and research trends in differential geometry and topology * Dedicated in honor of Lieven Vanhecke, as a tribute to his many fruitful and inspiring contributions to these fields * Papers include all necessary introductory and contextual material to appeal to non-specialists, as well as researchers and differential geometers

* Contains research and survey articles by well known and respected mathematicians on recent developments and research trends in differential geometry and topology * Dedicated in honor of Lieven Vanhecke, as a tribute to his many fruitful and inspiring contributions to these fields * Papers include all necessary introductory and contextual material to appeal to non-specialists, as well as researchers and differential geometers

Book endorsed by the Sunyer Prize Committee (A. Weinstein, J. Oesterle et. al.).

This monograph studies the problem of characterizing canonical metrics on Hermitian locally symmetric manifolds X of non-compact/compact types in terms of curvature conditions. The proofs of these metric rigidity theorems are applied to the study of holomorphic mappings between manifolds X of the same type. Moreover, a dual version of the generalized Frankel Conjecture on characterizing compact K„hler manifolds are also formulated.

This study starts with the basic theory of topological groups, harmonic analysis, and unitary representations. It then concentrates on geometric structure, harmonic analysis, and unitary representation theory in commutative spaces.

The purpose of this handbook is to give an overview of some recent developments in differential geometry related to supersymmetric field theories. The main themes covered are: Special geometry and supersymmetry Generalized geometry Geometries with torsion Para-geometries Holonomy theory Symmetric spaces and spaces of constant curvature Conformal geometry Wave equations on Lorentzian manifolds D-branes and K-theory The intended audience consists of advanced students and researchers working in differential geometry, string theory, and related areas. The emphasis is on geometrical structures occurring on target spaces of supersymmetric field theories. Some of these structures can be fully described in the classical framework of pseudo-Riemannian geometry. Others lead to new concepts relating various fields of research, such as special Kahler geometry or generalized geometry.