We derive large time upper bounds for heat kernels on vector bundles of differential forms on a class of non-compact Riemannian manifolds under certain curvature conditions.

Noncommutatively deformed geometries, such as the noncommutative torus, do not exist generically. I showed in a previous paper that the existence of such a deformation implies compatibility conditions between the classical metric and the Poisson bivector (which characterizes the noncommutativity). Here I present another necessary condition: the vanishing of a certain rank 5 tensor. In the case of a compact Riemannian manifold, I use these conditions to prove that the Poisson bivector can be constructed locally from commuting Killing vectors.

We study isometric Lie group actions on symmetric spaces admitting a section, i.e., a submanifold that meets all orbits orthogonally at every intersection point. We classify such actions on the compact symmetric spaces with simple isometry group and rank greater than one. In particular, we show that these actions are hyperpolar, i.e., the sections are flat.