The integral cohomology rings of the configuration spaces of $n$-tuples of distinct points on arbitrary surfaces (not necessarily orientable, not necessarily compact and possibly with boundary) are studied. It is shown that for punctured surfaces the cohomology rings stabilize as the number of points tends to infinity, similarly to the case of configuration spaces on the plane studied by Arnold, and the Goryunov splitting formula relating the cohomology groups of configuration spaces on the plane and punctured plane to arbitrary punctured surfaces is generalized. Moreover, on the basis of explicit cellular decompositions generalizing the construction of Fuchs and Vainshtein, the first cohomology groups for surfaces of low genus are given.

Let $A$ be an infinite-dimensional $C^*$-algebra. It is proved that every nonempty relatively weakly open subset of the closed unit ball $B_A$ of $A$ has diameter equal to 2. This implies that $B_A$ is not dentable, and that there is not any point of continuity for the identity mapping $(B_A,{\rm weak)\,{\longrightarrow}\,(B_A,{\rm norm})$.

The flag curvature of a Finsler metric is called a Riemannian quantity because it is an extension of sectional curvature in Riemannian geometry. In Finsler geometry, there are several non-Riemannian quantities such as the (mean) Cartan torsion, the (mean) Landsberg curvature and the S-curvature, which all vanish for Riemannian metrics. It is important to understand the geometric meanings of these quantities. In the paper, Finsler metrics of scalar curvature (that is, the flag curvature is a scalar function on the slit tangent bundle) are studied and the flag curvature is partially determined when certain non-Riemannian quantities are isotropic. Using the obtained formula for the flag curvature, locally projectively flat Randers metrics with isotropic S-curvature are classified.

For each Artin group, the reduced $\eltwo$-cohomology of (the universal cover of) its ‘Salvetti complex’ is computed. This is a CW-complex which is conjectured to be a model for the classifying space of the Artin group. In the many cases when this conjecture is known to hold the calculation describes the reduced $\eltwo$-cohomology of the Artin group.

The main result provides mild conditions under which a closed, orientable, PL 4-manifold $N = N_1\,\#\,N_2$ with $\pi_1(N_e)$ residually finite ($e=1,2$) is a codimension-5 PL fibrator. The paper also presents a rich variety of conditions on a closed 4-manifold $N^4$ under which every PL map between manifolds, where the domain is orientable and all point inverses are copies of $N^4$, must be an approximate fibration.

A formula of Walczak is applied to two situations in differential geometry. Holomorphic distributions on Kähler manifolds are studied, and it is shown how the formula simplifies to a Bochner type formula, which is particularly useful in the study of integrable distributions. Then the Walczak formula is applied in the context of harmonic morphisms, where it provides a means of investigating the vertical Laplacian of the dilation. It is shown that, under some additional conditions on the map and the domain, the $p$-energy is infinite for $p$ sufficiently large.

The relationship between the connections on two Riemannian manifolds that are related by a Riemannian submersion are used to characterise parallel translation on shape space in terms of its behaviour on the pre-shape sphere and so to derive a concrete procedure for the unrolling, or development, of curves in shape space onto tangent spaces. This will enable one to adapt to shape spaces the standard statistical procedures for fitting curves to Euclidean data.

Various kinds of minimal 3-spheres with constant sectional curvature in the complex projective space $\mathbb{C}^n$ are studied.

It is known that the group of homeomorphisms of a non-compact, connected, metrizable manifold acts transitively on certain spaces of measures defined, among other properties, by their behaviour at the manifold's set of ‘ends’. As a generalization of previous work of Fathi in the realm of compact manifolds, it is shown that the given action admits a continuous section when restricted to ‘biregular’ homeomorphisms and measures. This result exhibits the isotropy groups of measure-preserving homeomorphisms as deformation retracts of the corresponding acting groups.

The integrability of a control function of the almost sure convergence $$ \displaystyle\lim_{n \to \infty}\frac{X_1(\omega)+X_2(\omega)+\ldots+X_n(\omega)}{T_n}, $$ where $T_n \,{\uparrow}\, \infty $ as $n \to \infty$ and $X_1,X_2,\cdots,X_n,\cdots $ are independent identically distributed random variables, is studied.

On a manifold with polynomial volume growth satisfying Gaussian upper bounds of the heat kernel, a simple characterization of the matching lower bounds is given in terms of a certain Sobolev inequality. The method also works in the case of so-called sub-Gaussian or sub-diffusive heat kernels estimates, which are typical of fractals. Together with previously known results, this yields a new characterization of the full upper and lower Gaussian or sub-Gaussian heat kernel estimates.

When a Fock-adapted Feller cocycle on a $C^*$-algebra is regular, completely positive and contractive, it possesses a stochastic generator that is necessarily completely bounded. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given, in the form of a sequence of identities, for a completely bounded map to generate a weakly multiplicative cocycle. These are derived from a product formula for iterated quantum stochastic integrals. Under two alternative assumptions, one of which covers all previously considered cases, the first identity in the sequence is shown to imply the rest.