This dissertation is concerned with extensions and wedge products of positive currents. Our study can be considered as a generalization for classical works done earlier in this field. Paper I deals with the extension of positive currents across different types of sets. For closed complete pluripolar obstacles, we show the existence of such extensions. To do so, further Hausdorff dimension conditions are required. Moreover, we study the case when these obstacles are zero sets of strictly k-convex functions. In Paper II, we discuss the wedge product of positive pluriharmonic (resp. plurisubharmonic) current of bidimension (p,p) with the Monge-Ampère operator of plurisubharmonic function. In the first part of the paper, we define this product when the locus points of the plurisubharmonic function are located in a (2p-2)-dimensional closed set (resp. (2p-4)-dimensional sets), in the sense of Hartogs. The second part treats the case when these locus points are contained in a compact complete pluripolar sets and p≥2 (resp. p≥3). Paper III studies the extendability of negative S-plurisubharmonic current of bidimension (p,p) across a (2p-2)-dimensional closed set. Using only the positivity of S, we show that such extensions exist in the case when these obstacles are complete pluripolar, as well as zero sets of C2-plurisubharmoinc functions. / At the time of doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Accepted. Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.

Avhandlingen består av två ganska olika delar som ändå har en del gemensamt. Del A är baserad på två artiklar i matematik och del B är baserad på två matematikdidaktiska artiklar. De matematiska artiklarna utgår från ett begrepp som heter polynomkonvexitet. Grundidén är att man skulle kunna se vissa ytor som en sorts ”tak” (tänk på taket till en carport). Alla punkter, eller positioner, ”under taket” (ungefär som de platser som skyddas från regn av carporttaket) ligger i något som kallas ”polynomkonvexa höljet.” Tidigare forskning har visat att för ett givet tak och en given punkt så finns det ett sätt att avgöra om punkten ligger ”under taket”. Det finns nämligen i så fall alltid en sorts matematisk funktion med vissa egenskaper. Finns det ingen sådan funktion så ligger inte punkten under taket och tvärt om; ligger punkten utanför taket så finns det heller ingen sådan funktion. Jag visar i min första artikel att det kan finnas flera olika sådana funktioner till en punkt som ligger under taket. I den andra artikeln visar jag några exempel på hur man kan konstruera sådana funktioner när man vet hur taket ser ut och var under taket punkten ligger. De matematikdidaktiska artiklarna i avhandlingen handlar om vad som krävs av studenterna när de gör universitetstentor i matematik. Vissa uppgifter kan gå att lösa genom att studenterna lär sig någonting utantill ur läroboken och sen skriver ner det på tentan. Andra går kanske att lösa med hjälp en algoritm, ett ”recept,” som studenterna har övat på att använda. Båda dessa sätt att resonera kallas imitativt resonemang. Om uppgiften kräver att studenterna ”tänker själva” och skapar en (för dem) ny lösning, så kallas det kreativt resonemang. Forskning visar att elever i stor utsträckning väljer att jobba med imitativt resonemang, även när uppgifterna inte går att lösa på det sättet. Mycket pekar också på att de svårigheter med att lära sig matematik som elever ofta har är nära kopplat till detta arbetssätt. Det är därför viktigt att undersöka i vilken utsträckning de möter olika typer av resonemang i undervisningen. Den första artikeln består av en genomgång av tentauppgifter där det noggrant avgörs vilken typ av resonemang som de kräver av studenterna. Resultatet visar att studenterna kunde bli godkända på nästan alla tentorna med hjälp av imitativt resonemang. Den andra artikeln baserades på intervjuer med sex av de lärare som konstruerat tentorna. Syftet var att ta reda på varför tentorna såg ut som de gjorde och varför det räckte med imitativt resonemang för att klara dem. Det visade sig att lärarna kopplade uppgifternas svårighetsgrad till resonemangstypen. De ansåg att om uppgiften krävde kreativt resonemang så var den svår och att de uppgifter som gick att lösa med imitativt resonemang var lättare. Lärarna menade att under rådande omständigheter, t.ex. studenternas försämrade förkunskaper, så är det inte rimligt att kräva mer kreativt resonemang vid tentamenstillfället. / This dissertation consists of two different but connected parts. Part A is based on two articles in mathematics and Part B on two articles in mathematics education. Part A mainly focus on properties of positive currents in connection to polynomial convexity. Earlier research has shown that a point z0 lies in the polynomial hull of a compact set K if and only if there is a positive current with compact support such that ddcT = μ−δz0. Here μ is a probability measure on K and δz0 denotes the Dirac mass at z0. The main result of Article I is that the current T does not have to be unique. The second paper, Article II, contains two examples of different constructions of this type of currents. The paper is concluded by the proof of a proposition that might be the first step towards generalising the method used in the first example. Part B consider the types of reasoning that are required by students taking introductory calculus courses at Swedish universities. Two main concepts are used to describe the students’ reasoning: imitative reasoning and creative reasoning. Imitative reasoning consists basically of remembering facts or recalling algorithms. Creative reasoning includes flexible thinking founded on the relevant mathematical properties of ob jects in the task. Earlier research results show that students often choose imitative reasoning to solve mathematical tasks, even when it is not a successful method. In this context the word choose does not necessarily mean that the students make a conscious and well considered selection between methods, but just as well that they have a subconscious preference for certain types of procedures. The research also show examples of how students that work with algorithms seem to focus solely on remembering the steps, and researchers argue that this weakens the students’ understanding of the underlying mathematics. Article III examine to what extent students at Swedish universities can solve exam tasks in introductory calculus courses using only imitative reasoning. The results show that about 70 % of the tasks were solvable by imitative reasoning and that the students were required to use creative reasoning in only one of 16 exams in order to pass. In Article IV, six of the teachers that constructed the analysed exams in Article III were interviewed. The purpose was to examine their views and opinions on the reasoning required in the exams. The analysis showed that the teachers are quite content with the present situation. The teachers expressed the opinion that tasks demanding creative reasoning are usually more difficult than tasks solvable with imitative reasoning. They therefore use the required reasoning as a tool to regulate the tasks’ degree of difficulty, rather than as a task dimension of its own. The exams demand mostly imitative reasoning since the teachers believe that they otherwise would, under the current circumstances, be too difficult and lead to too low passing rates.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude de trois problèmes d'hyperbolicité complexe et presque complexe. La première partie est dédiée à la recherche d'une conséquence quantitative de l'hyperbolicité au sens de Kobayashi, qui est une propriété qualitative. Le résultat obtenu prend la forme d'une inégalité isopérimétrique qui évoque l'inégalité d'Ahlfors relative aux recouvrements des surfaces de surfaces. Sa démonstration est purement riemannienne.La deuxième partie de la thèse est consacrée à la démonstration d'une version presque complexe du théorème de Borel, qui affirme que les courbes entières dans le plan projectif complexe évitant quatre droites en position générale sont linéairement dégénérées. Dans un plan projectif presque complexe, les J-droites substituent aux droites projectives et nous disposons d'un énoncé analogue pour les J-courbes entières. La démonstration de ce résultat repose sur l'utilisation de projections centrales et sur la théorie de recouvrement des surfaces d'Ahlfors.La dernière partie est consacrée à la démonstration d'une version presque complexe du théorème de Bloch, qui affirme qu'une suite non normale de disques holomorphes du plan projectif évitant quatre droites en position générale converge, en un certain sens, vers une réunion de trois droites. Notre résultat implique en particulier l'hyperbolicité du complémentaire dans le plan projectif presque complexe de quatre J-droites modulo trois J-droites. / This thesis is dedicated to the study of three problems of complex and almost complex hyperbolicity. Its first part is dedicated to the research of a quantitative consequence to Kobayashi hyperbolicity, which is a qualitative property. The result we obtain has the form of an isoperimetric inequality that suggests Ahlfors' inequality, the central result of the theory of covering surfaces. Its proof uses only riemannian tools.The second part of the thesis is dedicated to the proof of an almost complex version of Borel's theorem, which says that an entire curve in the compex preojective plane missing four lines in general position is degenerate. In an almost compex context, we can obtain a similar result for entire J-curves just by replacing projective lines by J-lines. The proof of this result uses central projections and Ahlfors' theory of covering surfaces.The last part is dedicated to the proof of an almost complex version of Bloch's theorem, which says that given a sequence of holomorphic discs in the projective plane, either it is normal, either it converges in some sens to a reunion of three lines. Our result will show in particular that the complementary set of four J-lines in general position is hyperbolic modulo three J-lines.

Cette thèse comporte deux parties: - Dans la première partie, nous traitons d'abord une version kahlérienne du célèbre théorème d'extension d'Ohsawa-Takegoshi, puis, un problème de prolongement des courants positifs fermés. Notre motivation provient de la conjecture de Siu sur l'invariance des plurigenres dans le cas d'une famille kahlérienne. En effet, dans la preuve du célèbre théorème d'invariance des plurigenres de Siu, le théorème d'extension d'Ohsawa-Takegoshi joue un rôle important. Il est donc naturel de penser que la preuve de la conjecture fera également intervenir un théorème d'extension de type Ohsawa-Takegoshi dans le cas kahlérien. Suite aux difficultés techniques qui proviennent de la régularisation des fonctions quasi-psh sur les variétés kahlériennes compactes, nous obtenons seulement deux cas particuliers du résultat espéré. Pour ce qui est du prolongement des courants positifs fermés, notre résultat est un cas particulier de la conjecture qui prédit que tout courant positif fermé défini sur le fibré central d'une classe de cohomologie kahlérienne tordue par la classe de Chern du fibré canonique admet un prolongement. - Dans la deuxième partie, nous nous intéressons à l'unicité des solutions des équations de type Monge-Ampère généralisées. Il s'agit d'une généralisation d'un théorème de Bando-Mabuchi concernant les métriques de Kahler-Einstein sur les variétés de Fano. Nous suivons la méthode introduite par Berndtsson et généralisons son résultat en travaillant avec un courant positif fermé à la place d'une paire klt dans son contexte. Les propriétés de convexité des métriques de Bergman jouent un rôle important dans cette partie / This thesis consists in two parts: -In the first part, we first deal with a Kahler version of the famous Ohsawa-Takegoshi extension theorem; then, a problem of extending the closed positive currents. Our motivation comes from the Siu's conjecture on the invariance of plurigenera over a Kahler family. Indeed, in the proof of his famous theorem, the Ohsawa-Takegoshi theorem plays an important role. It is, therefore, natural to think that the proof for the conjecture involves an extension theorem of Ohsawa-Takegoshi type in the Kahler case. Because of the technical difficulties coming from the regularization process of quasi-psh functions over the compact Kahler manifolds, we only obtain two special cases of the hoped result. As for the extension of closed positive currents, our result is a special case of the conjecture which predicts that every closed positive current defined over the central fiber in a Kahler cohomology class twisted by the first Chern class of the canonical bundle admits an extension. -In the second part, we are interested in the uniqueness of the solutions of the equations of generalized Monge-Ampère type, a generalized Bando-Mabuchi theorem concerning the Kahler-Einstein metrics over Fano manifolds. We follow the method introduced by Berndtsson and generalize his result by working with a closed positive current in place of a klt pair in his context. The properties of the convexity of the Bergman metrics play an important role in this part