Remarks on the KLS conjecture and Hardy-type inequalities

We generalize the classical Hardy and Faber-Krahn inequalities to arbitrary functions on a convex body $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n$, not necessarily vanishing on the boundary $\partial \Omega$. This reduces the study of the Neumann Poincar\'e constant on $\Omega$ to that of the cone and Lebesgue measures on $\partial \Omega$; these may be bounded via the curvature of $\partial \Omega$. A second reduction is obtained to the class of harmonic functions on $\Omega$. We also study the relation between the Poincar\'e constant of a log-concave measure $\mu$ and its associated K. Ball body $K_\mu$. In particular, we obtain a simple proof of a conjecture of Kannan--Lov\'asz--Simonovits for unit-balls of $\ell^n_p$, originally due to Sodin and Lata{\l}a--Wojtaszczyk.Comment: 18 pages. Numbering of propositions, theorems, etc.. as appeared in final form in GAFA seminar note

On the cosmological singularity

The long story of the oscillatory approach to the initial cosmological singularity and its more recent incarnation in multidimensional universe models is told.Comment: The invited paper for Proceedings of the XIII Marcel Grossmann Meeting (Stockholm, 2012) by reason of the Marcel Grossmann Award to V.A. Belinski and I.M. Khalatniko

Stability and instability of expanding solutions to the Lorentzian constant-positive-mean-curvature flow

We study constant mean curvature Lorentzian hypersurfaces of $\mathbb{R}^{1,d+1}$ from the point of view of its Cauchy problem. We completely classify the spherically symmetric solutions, which include among them a manifold isometric to the de Sitter space of general relativity. We show that the spherically symmetric solutions exhibit one of three (future) asymptotic behaviours: (i) finite time collapse (ii) convergence to a time-like cylinder isometric to some $\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{S}^d$ and (iii) infinite expansion to the future converging asymptotically to a time translation of the de Sitter solution. For class (iii) we examine the future stability properties of the solutions under arbitrary (not necessarily spherically symmetric) perturbations. We show that the usual notions of asymptotic stability and modulational stability cannot apply, and connect this to the presence of cosmological horizons in these class (iii) solutions. We can nevertheless show the global existence and future stability for small perturbations of class (iii) solutions under a notion of stability that naturally takes into account the presence of cosmological horizons. The proof is based on the vector field method, but requires additional geometric insight. In particular we introduce two new tools: an inverse-Gauss-map gauge to deal with the problem of cosmological horizon and a quasilinear generalisation of Brendle's Bel-Robinson tensor to obtain natural energy quantities.Comment: Version 2: 60 pages, 1 figure. Changes mostly to fix typographical errors, with the exception of Remark 1.2 and Section 9.1 which are new and which explain the extrinsic geometry of the embedding in more detail in terms of the stability result. Version 3: updated reference

From Geometry to Numerics: interdisciplinary aspects in mathematical and numerical relativity

This article reviews some aspects in the current relationship between mathematical and numerical General Relativity. Focus is placed on the description of isolated systems, with a particular emphasis on recent developments in the study of black holes. Ideas concerning asymptotic flatness, the initial value problem, the constraint equations, evolution formalisms, geometric inequalities and quasi-local black hole horizons are discussed on the light of the interaction between numerical and mathematical relativists.Comment: Topical review commissioned by Classical and Quantum Gravity. Discussion inspired by the workshop "From Geometry to Numerics" (Paris, 20-24 November, 2006), part of the "General Relativity Trimester" at the Institut Henri Poincare (Fall 2006). Comments and references added. Typos corrected. Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit

Billiard Dynamics: An Updated Survey with the Emphasis on Open Problems

This is an updated and expanded version of our earlier survey article \cite{Gut5}. Section $\S 1$ introduces the subject matter. Sections $\S 2 - \S 4$ expose the basic material following the paradigm of elliptic, hyperbolic and parabolic billiard dynamics. In section $\S 5$ we report on the recent work pertaining to the problems and conjectures exposed in the survey \cite{Gut5}. Besides, in section $\S 5$ we formulate a few additional problems and conjectures. The bibliography has been updated and considerably expanded

Nonlinear Evolution Problems

In this workshop three types of nonlinear evolution problems— geometric evolution equations (essentially of parabolic type), nonlinear hyperbolic equations, and dispersive equations— were the subject of 22 talks