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It is well known that pseudo-Riemannian metrics in the projective class of a given torsion free affine connection can be obtained from (and are equivalent to) the solutions of a certain overdetermined projectively invariant differential equation. This equation is a special case of a so-called first BGG equation. The general theory of such equations singles out a subclass of so-called normal solutions. We prove that non-degerate normal solutions are equivalent to pseudo-Riemannian Einstein metrics in the projective class and observe that this connects to natural projective extensions of the Einstein condition., Comment: 10 pages. Adapted to published version. In addition corrected a minor sign error

Let $X$ be a smooth irreducible nondegenerate projective variety and let $X^*$ denote its dual variety. It is well known that $\sigma_2(X)^*$, the dual of the 2-secant variety of $X$, is a component of the singular locus of $X^*$. The locus of bitangent hyperplanes, i.e. hyperplanes tangent to at least two points of $X$, is a component of the sigular locus of $X^*$. In this paper we provide a sufficient condition for this component to be of maximal dimension and show how it can be used to determine which dual varieties of Grassmannians are normal. That last part may be compared to what has been done for hyperdeterminants by J. Weyman and A. Zelevinski (1996)., Comment: 14 pages, appeared in Journal of Algebra (2011)

We show that Margulis spacetimes without parabolic holonomy are topologically tame. A Margulis spacetime is the quotient of the $3$-dimensional Minkowski space by a free proper isometric action of the free group of rank $\geq 2$. We will use our particular point of view that the Margulis spacetime is a manifold-with-boundary with an $\mathbb{R} P^3$-structure in an essential way. The basic tools are a bordification by a closed $\mathbb{R} P^2$-manifold with free holonomy group, and the work of Goldman, Labourie, and Margulis on geodesics in the Margulis spacetimes and $3$-manifold topology., Comment: 51 pages, 6 figures. Corrected a few typos (The 6th version of "The topological and geometrical finiteness of complete flat Lorentzian 3-manifolds with free fundamental groups" arXiv:1204.5308v1 [math.GT])

In this paper, using the method of moving frames, we generalise some of Terracini's results on varieties with tangent defect. In particular, we characterise varieties with higher order osculating defect in terms of Jacobians of higher fundamental forms and moreover we characterise varieties with "small" higher fundamental forms as contained in scrolls., Comment: AMS-LaTeX; 17 pages. To appear in Revista Matem\'atica Iberoam\'ericana

Given a finitely generated semigroup S of the (normed) set of linear maps of a vector space V into itself, we find sufficient conditions for the exponential growth of the number N(k) of elements of the semigroup contained in the sphere of radius k as k->infinity. We relate the growth rate lim log N(k)/log k to the exponent of a zeta function naturally defined on the semigroup and, in case S is a semigroup of volume-preserving automorpisms, to the Hausdorff and box dimensions of the limit set of the induced semigroup of automorphisms on the corresponding projective space., Comment: 66 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables

I give a theory of Moebius-flat hypersurfaces in n-dimensional projective space, analogous to that in conformal geometry. This unifies the classes of hypersurfaces with flat induced conformal structure (n > 3) and a classically studied class of surfaces (n = 3). I extend an example of Akivis-Konnov, and use polynomial conserved quantities to characterise hypersurfaces with flat centro-affine metric among Moebius-flat hypersurfaces. The theory has an obvious counterpart in Lie sphere geometry., Comment: 18 pages

First BGG operators are a large class of overdetermined linear differential operators intrinsically associated to a parabolic geometry on a manifold. The corresponding equations include those controlling infinitesimal automorphisms, higher symmetries, and many other widely studied PDE of geometric origin. The machinery of BGG sequences also singles out a subclass of solutions called normal solutions. These correspond to parallel tractor fields and hence to (certain) holonomy reductions of the canonical normal Cartan connection. Using the normal Cartan connection, we define a special class of local frames for any natural vector bundle associated to a parabolic geometry. We then prove that the coefficient functions of any normal solution of a first BGG operator with respect to such a frame are polynomials in the normal coordinates of the parabolic geometry. A bound on the degree of these polynomials in terms of representation theory data is derived. For geometries locally isomorphic to the homogeneous model of the geometry we explicitly compute the local frames mentioned above. Together with the fact that on such structures all solutions are normal, we obtain a complete description of all first BGG solutions in this case. Finally, we prove that in the general case the polynominal system coming from a normal solution is the pull-back of a polynomial system that solves the corresponding problem on the homogeneous model. Thus we can derive a complete list of potential normal solutions on curved geometries. Morover, questions concerning the zero locus of solutions, as well as related finer geometric and smooth data, are reduced to a study of polynomial systems and real algebraic sets., Comment: 24 pages. Update corrects some typos and formula (3.1). This version to appear in the International Journal of Mathematics

We prove that r independent homogeneous polynomials of the same degree d become dependent when restricted to any hyperplane if and only if their inverse system parameterizes a variety whose (d-1)-osculating spaces have dimension smaller than expected. This gives an equivalence between an algebraic notion (called Weak Lefschetz Property) and a differential geometric notion, concerning varieties which satisfy certain Laplace equations. In the toric case, some relevant examples are classified and as byproduct we provide counterexamples to Ilardi's conjecture., Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures

We provide non trivial examples of solutions to the system of coupled equations introduced by M. Garc\'ia-Fern\'andez for the uniformization problem of a triple $(M,L,E)$ where $E$ is a holomorphic vector bundle over a polarized complex manifold $(M,L)$, generalizing the notions of both constant scalar curvature K\"ahler metric and Hermitian-Einstein metric., Comment: 17 pages

The generalization of Bertrand's theorem to abstract surfaces of revolution without "equators" is proved. We prove a criterion for the existence on such a surface of exactly two central potentials (up to an additive and a multiplicative constants) all of whose bounded nonsingular orbits are closed and which admit a bounded nonsingular noncircular orbit. A criterion for the existence of a unique such potential is proved. The geometry and classification of the corresponding surfaces are described, with indicating either the pair of gravitational and oscillator) potentials or the unique (oscillator) potential. The absence of the required potentials on any surface which does not meet the above criteria is proved., Comment: 37 pages, 5 figures, in Russian

Consider an immersed Legendrian surface in the five dimensional complex projective space equipped with the standard homogeneous contact structure. We introduce a class of fourth order projective Legendrian deformation called \emph{$\,\Psi$-deformation}, and give a differential geometric characterization of surfaces admitting maximum three parameter family of such deformations. Two explicit examples of maximally $\, \Psi$-deformable surfaces are constructed; the first one is given by a Legendrian map from $\, \PP^2$ blown up at three distinct collinear points, which is an embedding away from the -2-curve and degenerates to a point along the -2-curve. The second one is a Legendrian embedding of the degree 6 del Pezzo surface, $\, \PP^2$ blown up at three non-collinear points. In both cases, the Legendrian map is given by a system of cubics through the three points, which is a subsystem of the anti-canonical system., Comment: 33 pages

We study discrete conjugate nets whose Laplace sequence is of period four. Corresponding points of opposite nets in this cyclic sequence have equal osculating planes in different net directions, that is, they correspond in an asymptotic transformation. We show that this implies that the connecting lines of corresponding points form a discrete W-congruence. We derive some properties of discrete Laplace cycles of period four and describe two explicit methods for their construction.

We develop a holonomy reduction procedure for general Cartan geometries. We show that, given a reduction of holonomy, the underlying manifold naturally decomposes into a disjoint union of initial submanifolds. Each such submanifold corresponds to an orbit of the holonomy group on the modelling homogeneous space and carries a canonical induced Cartan geometry. The result can therefore be understood as a `curved orbit decomposition'. The theory is then applied to the study of several invariant overdetermined differential equations in projective, conformal and CR-geometry. This makes use of an equivalent description of solutions to these equations as parallel sections of a tractor bundle. In projective geometry we study a third order differential equation that governs the existence of a compatible Einstein metric. In CR-geometry we discuss an invariant equation that governs the existence of a compatible K\"{a}hler-Einstein metric., Comment: v2: major revision; 30 pages v3: final version to appear in Duke Math. J

This is the second in a series of papers on natural modification of the normal tractor connection in a parabolic geometry, which naturally prolongs an underlying overdetermined system of invariant differential equations. We give a short review of the general procedure developed in [5] and then compute the prolongation covariant derivatives for a number of interesting examples in projective, conformal and Grassmannian geometries., Comment: 27 pages

A real projective orbifold is an $n$-dimensional orbifold modeled on $\mathbb{RP}^n$ with the group $PGL(n+1, \mathbb{R})$. We concentrate on an orbifold that contains a compact codimension $0$ submanifold whose complement is a union of neighborhoods of ends, diffeomorphic to closed $(n-1)$-dimensional orbifolds times intervals. A real projective orbifold has a {\it radial end} if a neighborhood of the end is foliated by projective geodesics that develop into geodesics ending at a common point. It has a {\it totally geodesic end} if the end can be completed to have the totally geodesic boundary. The orbifold is said to be {\it convex} if any path can be homotopied to a projective geodesic with endpoints fixed. A real projective structure sometimes admits deformations to parameters of real projective structures. We will prove the local homeomorphism between the deformation space of convex real projective structures on such an orbifold with radial or totally geodesic ends with various conditions with the $PGL(n+1, \mathbb{R})$-character space of the fundamental group with corresponding conditions. We will use a Hessian argument to show that under a small deformation, a properly (resp. strictly) convex real projective orbifold with generalized admissible ends will remain properly and properly (resp. strictly) convex with generalized admissible ends. Lastly, we will prove the openness and closedness of the properly (resp. strictly) convex real projective structures on a class of orbifold with generalized admissible ends, where we need the theory of Crampon-Marquis and Cooper, Long and Tillmann on the Margulis lemma for convex real projective manifolds. The theory here partly generalizes that of Benoist on closed real projective orbifolds., Comment: 128 pages 10 figures

The degree of mobility of a (pseudo-Riemannian) K\"ahler metric is the dimension of the space of metrics h-projectively equivalent to it. We prove that a metric on a closed connected manifold can not have the degree of mobility $\ge 3$ unless it is essentially the Fubini-Study metric, or the h-projective equivalence is actually the affine equivalence. As the main application we prove an important special case of the classical conjecture attributed to Obata and Yano, stating that a closed manifold admitting an essential group of h-projective transformations is $(CP(n), g_{Fubini-Study})$ (up to a multiplication of the metric by a constant). An additional result is the generalization of a certain result of Tanno 1978 for the pseudo-Riemannian situation., Comment: 31 pages, 2 .eps figures. No essential changes w.r.t. v1 (misprints, reference updated,etc.)

For curved projective manifolds we introduce a notion of a normal tractor frame field, based around any point. This leads to canonical systems of (redundant) coordinates that generalise the usual homogeneous coordinates on projective space. These give preferred local maps to the model projective space that encode geometric contact with the model to a level that is optimal, in a suitable sense. In terms of the trivialisations arising from the special frames, normal solutions of classes of natural linear PDE (so-called first BGG equations) are shown to be necessarily polynomial in the generalised homogeneous coordinates; the polynomial system is the pull back of a polynomial system that solves the corresponding problem on the model. Thus questions concerning the zero locus of solutions, as well as related finer geometric and smooth data, are reduced to a study of the corresponding polynomial systems and algebraic sets. We show that a normal solution determines a canonical manifold stratification that reflects an orbit decomposition of the model. Applications include the construction of structures that are analogues of Poincare-Einstein manifolds., Comment: 22 pages

Hyperplanes, hyperspheres and hypercylinders in $\Bbb R^n$ with suitable densities are proved to be weighted minimizing by a calibration argument. Also calibration method is used to prove a weighted minimal hypersurface is weighted area-minimizing locally., Comment: 7 pages

A regular normal parabolic geometry of type $G/P$ on a manifold $M$ gives rise to sequences $D_i$ of invariant differential operators, known as the curved version of the BGG resolution. These sequences are constructed from the normal covariant derivative $\na^\om$ on the corresponding tractor bundle $V,$ where $\om$ is the normal Cartan connection. The first operator $D_0$ in the sequence is overdetermined and it is well known that $\na^\om$ yields the prolongation of this operator in the homogeneous case $M = G/P$. Our first main result is the curved version of such a prolongation. This requires a new normalization $\tilde{\na}$ of the tractor covariant derivative on $V$. Moreover, we obtain an analogue for higher operators $D_i$. In that case one needs to modify the exterior covariant derivative $d^{\na^\om}$ by differential terms. Finally we demonstrate these results on simple examples in projective and Grassmannian geometry. Our approach is based on standard techniques of the BGG machinery., Comment: 22 pages

By using Klein's model for hyperbolic geometry, hyperbolic structures on orbifolds or manifolds provide examples of real projective structures. By Andreev's theorem, many 3-dimensional reflection orbifolds admit a finite volume hyperbolic structure, and such a hyperbolic structure is unique. However, the induced real projective structure on some such 3-orbifolds deforms into a family of real projective structures that are not induced from hyperbolic structures. In this paper, we find new classes of compact and complete hyperbolic reflection 3-orbifolds with such deformations. We also explain numerical and exact results on projective deformations of some compact hyperbolic cubes and dodecahedra., Comment: 37 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

The generic singularities and bifurcations are classified for one-parameter families of curves with frames in a space form, the Euclidean space, the elliptic space or the hyperbolic space via projective geometry. Two kinds of frames are considered, adapted frames and osculating frames, in terms of certain differential systems on flag manifolds.

We present the non-trivial example how to generate non-Euclidean geometries from associative unital algebras. We consider bundles of the sphere of the degenerate non-Eucleadian space and its two models. The first (conformal) model is obtained by the mapping S onto a plane pass through the origin. It is analogous to the stereographic mapping. The second model (projective) is con- structed by the Norden normalization method, where we project the sphere onto a plane of normalization defining the metric and Christoffel symbols which allow us to find geodesic curves., Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure; extended version of 0809.0946

Let u be a function of n independent variables x^1, ..., x^n, and U=(u_{ij}) the Hessian matrix of u. The symplectic Monge-Ampere equation is defined as a linear relation among all possible minors of U. Particular examples include the equation det U=1 governing improper affine spheres and the so-called heavenly equation, u_{13}u_{24}-u_{23}u_{14}=1, describing self-dual Ricci-flat 4-manifolds. In this paper we classify integrable symplectic Monge-Ampere equations in four dimensions (for n=3 the integrability of such equations is known to be equivalent to their linearisability). This problem can be reformulated geometrically as the classification of 'maximally singular' hyperplane sections of the Plucker embedding of the Lagrangian Grassmannian. We formulate a conjecture that any integrable equation of the form F(u_{ij})=0 in more than three dimensions is necessarily of the symplectic Monge-Ampere type., Comment: 20 pages; added more details of proofs

We show that on a surface locally every affine torsion-free connection is projectively equivalent to a Weyl connection. First, this is done using exterior differential system theory. Second, this is done by showing that the solutions of the relevant PDE are in one-to-one correspondence with the sections of the `twistor' bundle of conformal inner products having holomorphic image. The second solution allows to use standard results in algebraic geometry to show that the Weyl connections on the two-sphere whose geodesics are the great circles are in one-to-one correspondence with the smooth quadrics without real points in the complex projective plane., Comment: 15 pages. Final version

We solve the problem on flat extensions of a generic surface with boundary in Euclidean 3-space, relating it to the singularity theory of the envelope generated by the boundary. We give related results on Legendre surfaces with boundaries via projective duality and observe the duality on boundary singularities. Moreover we give formulae related to remote singularities of the boundary-envelope., Comment: Several typos are corrected (2010. Jan.)

Using the Plucker map between grassmannians, we study basic aspects of classic grassmannian geometries. For `hyperbolic' grassmannian geometries, we prove some facts (for instance, that the Plucker map is a minimal isometric embedding) that were previously known in the `elliptic' case., Comment: 12 pages. 2010 edition

We study grassmannians associated with a linear space with a nondegenerate hermitian form. The geometry of these grassmannians allows us to explain the relation between a (pseudo-)riemannian projective geometry and the conformal structure on its ideal boundary (absolute). Such relation encompasses, for instance, the usual conformal structure on the absolute of real hyperbolic space, the usual conformal structure on the absolute of de Sitter space, the conformal contact structure on the absolute of complex hyperbolic space, and the causal structure on the absolute of anti-de Sitter space., Comment: 8 pages. Dedicated to the memory of Waldyr Rodrigues Jr

We construct an explicit scheme to associate to any potential symbol an operator acting between sections of natural bundles (associated to irreducible representations) for a so-called AHS-structure. Outside of a finite set of critical (or resonant) weights, this procedure gives rise to a quantization, which is intrinsic to this geometric structure. In particular, this provides projectively and conformally equivariant quantizations for arbitrary symbols on general (curved) projective and conformal structures., Comment: 19 pages, no figures

It is shown that the Hilbert metric on the interior of a convex polytope is bilipschitz to a normed vector space of the same dimension., Comment: 11 pages, minor changes, to appear in Archiv Math

Some new results on geometry of classical parabolic Monge-Amp\`ere equations (PMA) are presented. PMAs are either \emph{integrable}, or \emph{nonintegrable} according to integrability of its characteristic distribution. All integrable PMAs are locally equivalent to the equation $u_{xx}=0$. We study nonintegrable PMAs by associating with each of them a 1-dimensional distribution on the corresponding first order jet manifold, called the \emph{directing distribution}. According to some property of this distribution, nonintegrable PMAs are subdivided into three classes, one \emph{generic} and two \emph{special} ones. Generic PMAs are completely characterized by their directing distributions, and we study canonical models of the latters, \emph{projective curve bundles} (PCB). A PCB is a 1-dimensional subbundle of the projectivized cotangent bundle of a 4-dimensional manifold. Differential invariants of projective curves composing such a bundle are used to construct a series of contact differential invariants for corresponding PMAs. These give a solution of the equivalence problem for generic PMAs with respect to contact transformations. The introduced invariants measure in an exact manner nonlinearity of PMAs.

In Theorem 1, we generalize the results of Szabo for Berwald metrics that are not necessary strictly convex: we show that for every Berwald metric F there always exists a Riemannian metric affine equivalent to F. As an application we show (Corollary 3) that every Berwald projectively flat metric is a Minkowski metric; this statement is a "Berwald" version of Hilbert's 4th problem. Further, we investigate geodesic equivalence of Berwald metrics. Theorem 2 gives a system of PDE that has a (nontrivial) solution if and only if the given essentially Berwald metric admits a Riemannian metric that is (nontrivially) geodesically equivalent to it. The system of PDE is linear and of Cauchy-Frobenius type, i.e., the derivatives of unknown functions are explicit expressions of the unknown functions. As an application (Corollary 2), we obtain that geodesic equivalence of an essentially Berwald metric and a Riemannian metric is always affine equivalence provided both metrics are complete., Comment: 11 pages; two .eps figures. Only grammatic and stylistic corrections with respect to (v1). The paper is accepted to Publicationes Mathematicae Debrecen and may appear in volume 74 (2009)

Contact projective structures have been profoundly studied by D.J.F. Fox. He associated to a contact projective structure a canonical projective structure on the same manifold. We interpret Fox' construction in terms of the equivalent parabolic (Cartan) geometries, showing that it is an analog of Fefferman's construction of a conformal structure associated to a CR structure. We show that, on the level of Cartan connections, this Fefferman--type construction is compatible with normality if and only if the initial structure has vanishing contact torsion. This leads to a geometric description of the paths that have to be added to the contact geodesics of a contact projective structure in order to obtain the subordinate projective structure. They are exactly the chains associated to the contact projective structure, which are analogs of the Chern-Moser chains in CR geometry. Finally, we analyze the consequences for the geometry of chains and prove that a chain-preserving contactomorphism must be a morphism of contact projective structures., Comment: AMSLaTeX, 16 pages

It is shown that the volume entropy of a Hilbert geometry associated to an $n$-dimensional convex body of class $C^{1,1}$ equals $n-1$. To achieve this result, a new projective invariant of convex bodies, similar to the centro-affine area, is constructed. In the case $n=2$, and without any assumption on the boundary, it is shown that the entropy is bounded above by $\frac{2}{3-d} \leq 1$, where $d$ is the Minkowski dimension of the extremal set of $K$. An example of a plane Hilbert geometry with entropy strictly between 0 and 1 is constructed., Comment: 27 pages; minor changes

We prove an important partial case of the pseudo-Riemannian version of the projective Lichnerowicz conjecture stating that a complete manifold admitting an essential group of projective transformations is the round sphere (up to a finite cover)., Comment: 32 pages, one .eps figure. The version v1 has a misprint in Theorem 1: I forgot to write the assumption that the degree of mobility is greater than two. The versions v3, v4 have only cosmetic changes wrt v2

Let Riemannian metrics $g$ and $\bar g$ on a connected manifold $M^n$ have the same geodesics (considered as unparameterized curves). Suppose the eigenvalues of one metric with respect to the other are all different at a point. Then, by the famous Levi-Civita's Theorem, the metrics have a certain standard form near the point. Our main result is a generalization of Levi-Civita's Theorem for the points where the eigenvalues of one metric with respect to the other bifurcate., Comment: 28 pages; no figures

We search for Riemannian metrics whose Levi-Civita connection belongs to a given projective class. Following Sinjukov and Mikes, we show that such metrics correspond precisely to suitably positive solutions of a certain projectively invariant finite-type linear system of partial differential equations. Prolonging this system, we may reformulate these equations as defining covariant constant sections of a certain vector bundle with connection. This vector bundle and its connection are derived from the Cartan connection of the underlying projective structure., Comment: 10 pages

We prove that every complete Einstein (Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian) metric $g$ is geodesically rigid: if any other complete metric $\bar g$ has the same (unparametrized) geodesics with $g$, then the Levi-Civita connections of $g$ and $\bar g$ coincide., Comment: misprints corrected, references updated. 22 pages, one .eps figure

We generalize the following classical result of Fubini for pseudo-Riemannian metrics: if three essentially different metrics on $M^{n\ge 3}$ share the same unparametrized geodesics, and two of them (say, $g$ and $\bar g$) are strictly nonproportional (i.e., the minimal polynomial of $g^{i\alpha} \bar g_{\alpha j}$ coincides with the characteristic polynomial) at least at one point, then they have constant curvature.

This is a detailed study of the infinitesimal variation of the variety of lines through a point of a low degree hypersurface in pro jective space. The motion is governed by a system of partial differential equations which we describe explicitly., Comment: v2 - substantial revision. 12 pages

We discuss pseudo-Riemannian metrics on 2-dimensional manifolds such that the geodesic flow admits a nontrivial integral quadratic in velocities. We construct local normal forms of such metrics. We show that these metrics have certain useful properties similar to those of Riemannian Liouville metrics, namely: 1) they admit geodesically equivalent metrics; 2) one can use them to construct a big family of natural systems admitting integrals quadratic in momenta; 3) the integrability of such systems can be generalized to the quantum setting; 4) these natural systems are integrable by quadratures.

We construct local normal forms of pseudo-Riemannian projectively equivalent 2-dimensional metrics., Comment: 6 pages. This is an appendix to the paper "A solution of another problem of Sophus Lie: 2-dimensional metrics admitting precisely one projective vector field" of V. Matveev

We give a complete list of two-dimensional metrics that admit an essential projective vector field. This solves a problem explicitly posed by Sophus Lie in 1882., Comment: 42 pages, no figures. The changes w.r.t. (v1) are the following: A paragraph with explanations was added in the introduction, the title was changed, misprints were corrected, references were updated, appendix (by A. Bolsinov, V. Matveev and G. Pucacco) is now incorporated in the paper (it was separately posted as arXiv:0802.2346v1). The paper is accepted to Math. Ann

We discuss discretization of Koenigs nets (conjugate nets with equal Laplace invariants) and of isothermic surfaces. Our discretization is based on the notion of dual quadrilaterals: two planar quadrilaterals are called dual, if their corresponding sides are parallel, and their non-corresponding diagonals are parallel. Discrete Koenigs nets are defined as nets with planar quadrilaterals admitting dual nets. Several novel geometric properties of discrete Koenigs nets are found; in particular, two-dimensional discrete Koenigs nets can be characterized by co-planarity of the intersection points of diagonals of elementary quadrilaterals adjacent to any vertex; this characterization is invariant with respect to projective transformations. Discrete isothermic nets are defined as circular Koenigs nets. This is a new geometric characterization of discrete isothermic surfaces introduced previously as circular nets with factorized cross-ratios., Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures

We give a complete list of normal forms for the 2-dimensional metrics that admit a transitive Lie pseudogroup of geodesic-preserving transformations and we show that these normal forms are mutually non-isometric. This solves a problem posed by Sophus Lie., Comment: This is an extended version of the paper that will appear in Math. Annalen. Some typos were corrected, references were updated, title was changed (as in the journal version). 31 pages

In this paper the notion of an M-th order invariant bilinear differential pairing is introduced and a formal definition is given. If the manifold has an AHS structure, then various first order pairings are constructed. This yields a classification of all first order invariant bilinear differential pairings on homogeneous spaces with an AHS structure except for certain totally degenerate cases. Moreover higher order invariant bilinear differential pairings are constructed on these homogeneous spaces which leads to a classification on complex projective space for the non degenerate cases. A degenerate case corresponds to the existence of an invariant linear differential operator., Comment: 29 pages

This paper is devoted to a coordinate-free approach to several classic geometries such as hyperbolic (real, complex, quaternionic), elliptic (spherical, Fubini-Study), and lorentzian (de Sitter, anti de Sitter) ones. These geometries carry a certain simple structure that is in some sense stronger than the riemannian structure. Their basic geometrical objects have linear nature and provide natural compactifications of classic spaces. The usual riemannian concepts are easily derivable from the strong structure and thus gain their coordinate-free form. Many examples illustrate fruitful features of the approach. The framework introduced here has already been shown to be adequate for solving problems concerning particular classic spaces., Comment: 20 pages, 2 pictures, 1 table, 32 references. Final version

We present the theory of tensors with Young tableau symmetry as an efficient computational tool in dealing with the polynomial first integrals of a natural system in classical mechanics. We relate a special kind of such first integrals, already studied by Lundmark, to Beltrami's theorem about projectively flat Riemannian manifolds. We set the ground for a new and simple theory of the integrable systems having only quadratic first integrals. This theory begins with two centered quadrics related by central projection, each quadric being a model of a space of constant curvature. Finally, we present an extension of these models to the case of degenerate quadratic forms., Comment: 39 pages, 2 figures

A quadratic point on a surface in $RP^3$ is a point at which the surface can be approximated by a quadric abnormally well (up to order 3). We conjecture that the least number of quadratic points on a generic compact non-degenerate hyperbolic surface is 8; the relation between this and the classic Carath\'{e}odory conjecture is similar to the relation between the six-vertex and the four-vertex theorems on plane curves. Examples of quartic perturbations of the standard hyperboloid confirm our conjecture. Our main result is a linearization and reformulation of the problem in the framework of 2-dimensional Sturm theory; we also define a signature of a quadratic point and calculate local normal forms recovering and generalizing Tresse-Wilczynski's theorem., Comment: Latex 25 pages, 10 figures

I show that the adjoint variety of the complex special linear group is rigid to order three., Comment: 15 pages, v1

A simple closed curve $\gamma$ in the real projective plane $P^2$ is called anti-convex if for each point $p$ on the curve, there exists a line which is transversal to the curve and meets the curve only at $p$. We shall prove the relation $i(\gamma)-2\delta(\gamma)=3$ for anti-convex curves, where $i(\gamma)$ is the number of independent (true) inflection points and $\delta(\gamma)$ the number of independent double tangents. This formula is a refinement of the classical M\"obius theorem. We shall also show that there are three inflection points on a given anti-convex curve such that the tangent lines at these three inflection points cross the curve only once. Our approach is axiomatic and can be applied in other situations. For example, we prove similar results for curves of constant width as a corollary., Comment: 28pages, 20 figures