Nuclear C*-algebras having a system of completely positive approximations formed with convex combinations of a uniformly bounded number of order zero summands are shown to be approximately finite dimensional.

We develop a modulus method for surface families inside a domain in the Heisenberg group and we prove that the stretch map between two Heisenberg spherical rings is a minimiser for the mean distortion among the class of contact quasiconformal maps between these rings which satisfy certain boundary conditions.

We study the set of solutions (ωg,n)g⩾0,n⩾1 of abstract loop equations. We prove that ωg,n is determined by its purely holomorphic part: this results in a decomposition that we call “blobbed topological recursion”. This is a generalisation of the theory of the topological recursion, in which the initial data (ω0,1, ω0,2) is enriched by non-zero symmetric holomorphic forms in n variables (φg,n)2g−2+n>0. In particular, we establish for any solution of abstract loop equations: (1) a graphical representation of ωg,n in terms of φg,n; (2) a graphical representation of ωg,n in terms of intersection numbers on the moduli space of curves; (3) variational formulas under infinitesimal transformation of φg,n; (4) a definition for the free energies ωg,0 = Fg respecting the variational formulas. We discuss in detail the application to the multi-trace matrix model and enumeration of stuffed maps.

We initiate the study of the asymptotic topology of groups that can be realised as fundamental groups of smooth complex projective varieties with holomorphically convex universal covers (these are called here as holomorphically convex groups). We prove the H1-semistability conjecture of Geoghegan for holomorphically convex groups. In view of a theorem of Eyssidieux, Katzarkov, Pantev and Ramachandran [EKPR], this implies that linear projective groups satisfy the H1-semistability conjecture.

Given a 2-stranded tangle T contained in a ℤ-homology ball Y, we investigate the character variety R(Y, T) of conjugacy classes of traceless SU(2) representations of π1(Y \ T). In particular we completely determine the subspace of binary dihedral representations, and identify all of R(Y, T) for many tangles naturally associated to knots in S3. Moreover, we determine the image of the restriction map from R(T, Y) to the traceless SU(2) character variety of the 4-punctured 2-sphere (the pillowcase). We give examples to show this image can be non-linear in general, and show it is linear for tangles associated to pretzel knots.

We show that quasiconformal maps on many Carnot groups must be biLipschitz. In particular, this is the case for 2-step Carnot groups with reducible first layer. These results have implications for the rigidity of quasiisometries between negatively curved solvable Lie groups.

A calibration of degree k ∈ ℕ on a Riemannian manifold M is a closed differential k-form θ such that the integral of θ over every k-dimensional, oriented submanifold N is smaller or equal to the Riemannian volume of N. A calibration θ is said to calibrate N if θ restricts to the oriented volume form of N. We investigate conditions on a calibration θ that ensure the existence of submanifolds calibrated by θ. The cases k = 1 and k > 1 turn out to be essentially different. Our main result says that, on a compact manifold M, a calibration θ calibrates a lamination if θ is simple, of class C1, and if θ has minimal comass norm in its cohomology class.

We prove Davis decompositions for vector valued Hardy martingales and illustrate their use. This paper continues the work in [18] and [19] on Davis and Garsia Inequalities.