Instantons on the exceptional holonomy manifolds of Bryant and Salamon

We give a construction of $G_2$ and $Spin(7)$ instantons on exceptional holonomy manifolds constructed by Bryant and Salamon, by using an ansatz of spherical symmetry coming from the manifolds being the total spaces of rank-4 vector bundles. In the $G_2$ case, we show that, in the asymptotically conical model, the connections are asymptotic to Hermitian Yang-Mills connections on the nearly Kahler $S^3times S^3$.

Minimal Surfaces in G2 Manifolds

We consider immersions of a Riemann surface into a manifold with $G_2$-holonomy and give criteria for them to be conformal and harmonic, in terms of an associated Gauss map.

Rigidity of Rank-One Factors of Compact Symmetric Spaces

We consider the decomposition of a compact-type symmetric space into a product of factors and show that the rank-one factors, when considered as totally geodesic submanifolds of the space, are isolated from inequivalent minimal submanifolds.