# The Sphere Covering Inequality and its applications

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Changfeng Gui, University of Texas at San Antonio
Fine Hall 214

In this talk, I will introduce a new geometric inequality:  the Sphere Covering Inequality. The inequality  states that   the total area  of two {\it distinct}  surfaces with Gaussian curvature less than 1, which are also conformal to  the Euclidean unit disk  with the same conformal factor on the boundary,  must be at least $4 \pi$.  In other words,  the areas of these surfaces must cover the whole unit sphere after a proper rearrangement. We apply the Sphere Covering Inequality to show the best constant of a Moser-Trudinger type inequality conjectured by A. Chang and P. Yang. Other applications of this inequality include the classification of certain Onsager vortices  on the sphere,  the radially symmetry of solutions to Gaussian curvature equation on the plane, classification of solutions for mean field equations on flat tori and  the standard sphere, etc. The resolution of several open problems in these areas will  be presented. Some generalizations of the inequality to include singular terms or more general  surfaces will also be presented.