We make a case for the unique relevance of Cartan geometry for gauge theories of gravity and supergravity. We introduce our discussion by recapitulating historical threads, providing motivations. In a first part we review the geometry of classical gauge theory, as a background for understanding gauge theories of gravity in terms of Cartan geometry. The second part introduces the basics of the group manifold approach to supergravity, hinting at the deep rooted connections to Cartan supergeometry....

There is an obvious topological obstruction for a finite energy unimodular harmonic extension of a $S^1$-valued function defined on the boundary of a bounded regular domain of $R^n$. When such extensions do not exist, we use the Ginzburg-Landau relaxation procedure. We prove that, up to a subsequence, a sequence of Ginzburg-Landau minimizers, as the coupling parameter tends to infinity, converges to a unimodular harmonic map away from a codimension-2 minimal current minimizing the area within the homology...

I vari metodi di definire connessioni adattate ad un Riferimento fisico vengono qui ricondotti ad un unico formalismo. Viene inoltre introdotta la nozione generale di campo gravitazionale affine adattato (sia al Riferimento che alla connessione).

A mini-introduction to critical phenomena in gravitational collapse is combined with a more detailed discussion of how gravity regularizes the 'critical spacetimes' that dominate these phenomena.

Let $F^{\mathrm{p}}\in \mathrm{GL}\left(3\right)$ be the plastic deformation from the multiplicative decomposition in elasto-plasticity. We show that the geometric dislocation density tensor of Gurtin in the form $\mathrm{Curl}\left[F^{\mathrm{p}}\right]·{\left(F^{\mathrm{p}}\right)}^T$ applied to rotations controls the gradient in the sense that pointwise $\forall R\in C^1({ℝ}^3,\mathrm{SO}\left(3\right)):\parallel \mathrm{Curl}\left[R\right]·R^T{\parallel }_{{𝕄}^{3\times 3}}^2\ge \frac{1}{2}{\parallel \mathrm{D}R\parallel }_{{ℝ}^{27}}^2$. This result complements rigidity results [Friesecke, James and Müller, Comme Pure Appl. Math. 55 (2002) 1461–1506; John, Comme Pure Appl. Math. 14 (1961) 391–413; Reshetnyak, Siberian Math. J. 8 (1967) 631–653)] as well as an associated linearized theorem...

Let $F^{\mathrm{p}}\in \mathrm{GL}\left(3\right)$ be the plastic deformation from the multiplicative decomposition in elasto-plasticity. We show that the geometric dislocation density tensor of Gurtin in the form $\mathrm{Curl}\left[F^{\mathrm{p}}\right]·{\left(F^{\mathrm{p}}\right)}^T$ applied to rotations controls the gradient in the sense that pointwise $\forall R\in C^1({ℝ}^3,\mathrm{SO}\left(3\right)):\parallel \mathrm{Curl}\left[R\right]·R^T{\parallel }_{{𝕄}^{3\times 3}}^2\ge \frac{1}{2}{\parallel \mathrm{D}R\parallel }_{{ℝ}^{27}}^2$. This result complements rigidity results [Friesecke, James and Müller, Comme Pure Appl. Math.55 (2002) 1461–1506; John, Comme Pure Appl. Math.14 (1961) 391–413; Reshetnyak, Siberian Math. J.8 (1967) 631–653)] as well as an associated linearized theorem saying...