This book draws a colorful and widespread picture of global affine hypersurface theory up to the most recent state. Moreover, the recent development revealed that affine differential geometry – as differential geometry in general – has an exciting intersection area with other fields of interest, like partial differential equations, global analysis, convex geometry and Riemann surfaces. The second edition of this monograph leads the reader from introductory concepts to recent research. Since the publication of the first edition in 1993 there appeared important new contributions, like the solutions of two different affine Bernstein conjectures, due to Chern and Calabi, respectively. Moreover, a large subclass of hyperbolic affine spheres were classified in recent years, namely the locally strongly convex Blaschke hypersurfaces that have parallel cubic form with respect to the Levi-Civita connection of the Blaschke metric. The authors of this book present such results and new methods of proof.

This is a self-contained and systematic account of affine differential geometry from a contemporary viewpoint, not only covering the classical theory, but also introducing the modern developments that have happened over the last decade. In order both to cover as much as possible and to keep the text of a reasonable size, the authors have concentrated on the significant features of the subject and their relationship and application to such areas as Riemannian, Euclidean, Lorentzian and projective differential geometry. In so doing, they also provide a modern introduction to the last. Some of the important geometric surfaces considered are illustrated by computer graphics, making this a physically and mathematically attractive book for all researchers in differential geometry, and for mathematical physicists seeking a quick entry into the subject.

In this monograph, the interplay between geometry and partial differential equations (PDEs) is of particular interest. It gives a selfcontained introduction to research in the last decade concerning global problems in the theory of submanifolds, leading to some types of Monge-Amp re equations. From the methodical point of view, it introduces the solution of certain Monge-Amp re equations via geometric modeling techniques. Here geometric modeling means the appropriate choice of a normalization and its induced geometry on a hypersurface defined by a local strongly convex global graph. For a better understanding of the modeling techniques, the authors give a selfcontained summary of relative hypersurface theory, they derive important PDEs (e.g. affine spheres, affine maximal surfaces, and the affine constant mean curvature equation). Concerning modeling techniques, emphasis is on carefully structured proofs and exemplary comparisons between different modelings.

Contents:Progress in Affine Differential Geometry — Problem List and Continued Bibliography (T Binder & U Simon)On the Classification of Timelike Bonnet Surfaces (W H Chen & H Z Li)Affine Hyperspheres with Constant Affine Sectional Curvature (F Dillen et al.)Geometric Properties of the Curvature Operator (P Gilkey)On a Question of S S Chern Concerning Minimal Hypersurfaces of Spheres (I Hiric( & L Verstraelen)Parallel Pure Spinors on Pseudo-Riemannian Manifolds (I Kath)Twistorial Construction of Spacelike Surfaces in Lorentzian 4-Manifolds (F Leitner)Nirenberg's Problem in 90's (L Ma)A New Proof of the Homogeneity of Isoparametric Hypersurfaces with (g,m) = (6, 1) (R Miyaoka)Harmonic Maps and Negatively Curved Homogeneous Spaces (S Nishikawa)Biharmonic Morphisms Between Riemannian Manifolds (Y L Ou)Intrinsic Properties of Real Hypersurfaces in Complex Space Forms (P J Ryan)On the Nonexistence of Stable Minimal Submanifolds in Positively Pinched Riemannian Manifolds (Y B Shen & H Q Xu)Geodesic Mappings of the Ellipsoid (K Voss)η-Invariants and the Poincaré-Hopf Index Formula (W Zhang)and other papers Readership: Researchers in differential geometry and topology. Keywords:Conference;Proceedings;Berlin (Germany);Beijing (China);Geometry;Topology;Submanifolds X;Differential Geometry;Dedication

This book contains the proceedings of the «Symposium on differential geometry» which took place at the Université de Valenciennes et du Hainaut Cambrésis from July 3, 2007 until July 7, 2007.The main theme of the conference was the differential geometry of submanifolds. Special emphasis was put on the following topics:Lagrangian immersions, Minimal immersions and constant mean curvature immersions, Harmonic maps and harmonic morphisms, Variational problems, Affine differential geometry. This conference follows the tradition of the conferences in the series of « Geometry and Topology of Submanifolds », which started with the Luminy meeting in 1987 and then continued with various meetings at different places in Europe, such as amongst others Avignon, Leeds, Leuven, Brussels, Nordfjordeid, Berlin, Warszawa, Bedlewo and also in China (Beijing, 1998).