A basic problem in differential geometry is to find canonical metrics on manifolds. The best known example of this is the classical uniformization theorem for Riemann surfaces. Extremal metrics were introduced by Calabi as an attempt at finding a higher-dimensional generalization of this result, in the setting of Kähler geometry. This book gives an introduction to the study of extremal Kähler metrics and in particular to the conjectural picture relating the existence of extremal metrics on projective manifolds to the stability of the underlying manifold in the sense of algebraic geometry. The book addresses some of the basic ideas on both the analytic and the algebraic sides of this picture. An overview is given of much of the necessary background material, such as basic Kähler geometry, moment maps, and geometric invariant theory. Beyond the basic definitions and properties of extremal metrics, several highlights of the theory are discussed at a level accessible to graduate students: Yau's theorem on the existence of Kähler-Einstein metrics, the Bergman kernel expansion due to Tian, Donaldson's lower bound for the Calabi energy, and Arezzo-Pacard's existence theorem for constant scalar curvature Kähler metrics on blow-ups.

There has been fundamental progress in complex differential geometry in the last two decades. For one, The uniformization theory of canonical Kähler metrics has been established in higher dimensions, and many applications have been found, including the use of Calabi-Yau spaces in superstring theory. This monograph gives an introduction to the theory of canonical Kähler metrics on complex manifolds. It also presents some advanced topics not easily found elsewhere.

This collection of papers constitutes a wide-ranging survey of recent developments in differential geometry and its interactions with other fields, especially partial differential equations and mathematical physics. This area of mathematics was the subject of a special program at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton during the academic year 1979-1980; the papers in this volume were contributed by the speakers in the sequence of seminars organized by Shing-Tung Yau for this program. Both survey articles and articles presenting new results are included. The articles on differential geometry and partial differential equations include a general survey article by the editor on the relationship of the two fields and more specialized articles on topics including harmonic mappings, isoperimetric and Poincaré inequalities, metrics with specified curvature properties, the Monge-Arnpere equation, L2 harmonic forms and cohomology, manifolds of positive curvature, isometric embedding, and Kraumlhler manifolds and metrics. The articles on differential geometry and mathematical physics cover such topics as renormalization, instantons, gauge fields and the Yang-Mills equation, nonlinear evolution equations, incompleteness of space-times, black holes, and quantum gravity. A feature of special interest is the inclusion of a list of more than one hundred unsolved research problems compiled by the editor with comments and bibliographical information.

The Yau-Tian-Donaldson conjecture for anti-canonical polarization was recently solved affirmatively by Chen-Donaldson-Sun and Tian. However, this conjecture is still open for general polarizations or more generally in extremal Kähler cases. In this book, the unsolved cases of the conjecture will be discussed. It will be shown that the problem is closely related to the geometry of moduli spaces of test configurations for polarized algebraic manifolds. Another important tool in our approach is the Chow norm introduced by Zhang. This is closely related to Ding’s functional, and plays a crucial role in our differential geometric study of stability. By discussing the Chow norm from various points of view, we shall make a systematic study of the existence problem of extremal Kähler metrics.

"The aim of this monograph is to give an essentially self-contained introduction to the theory of canonical Kahler metrics on complex manifolds. It also presents the reader with some advanced topics in complex differential geometry not easily found elsewhere. The topics include Calabi-Futaki invariants, extremal Kahler metrics, the Calabi-Yau theorem on existence of Kahler Ricci-flat metrics, and recent progress on Kahler-Einstein metrics with positive scalar curvature. Applications of Kahler-Einstein metrics to the uniformization theory are also discussed." "Readers with a good general knowledge of differential geometry and partial differential equations should be able to grasp and appreciate the materials in this monograph."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This volume contains contributions from speakers at the 2015–2018 joint Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland Complex Geometry Seminar. It begins with a survey article on recent developments in pluripotential theory and its applications to Kähler–Einstein metrics and continues with articles devoted to various aspects of the theory of complex manifolds and functions on such manifolds.