The Einstein equations from gravitational theory have a geometric interpretation that picks out a preferred metric to determine lengths and angles on a space. The determination of conditions for solvability of those equations has seen recent progress and continues to pose important open problems in geometry. The projects to be carried out include approaches to those problems through geometric flows that deform the metric on a space in a direction that might lead to a canonical metric, or, alternatively, might develop a singularity that blocks progress toward such a metric.
Some of these projects will study the formation of long-time and short-time singularities from Kaehler-Ricci flow which are closely related to the analytic minimal model program proposed by Song and Tian. The conical Kaehler-Einstein equations have been very successful for Fano manifolds, and these projects will investigate the existence and properties of conical canonical Kaehler metrics in algebraic varieties and explore their applications in solving open problems in algebraic geometry. Another line of work will study coupled systems of parabolic type which originated from general relativity in physics. The solutions to the coupled systems will yield Einstein vacuum metrics and shed light on the structure of the underlying space.
