We show that Calabi–Yau fibrations over curves are uniformly K-stable in an adiabatic sense if and only if the base curves are K-stable in the log-twisted sense. Moreover, we prove that there are cscK metrics for such fibrations when the total spaces are smooth.

We characterize the fractional Dehn twist coefficient (FDTC) on the n-stranded braid group as the unique homogeneous quasimorphism to $\mathbb {R}$ of defect at most 1 that equals 1 on the positive full twist and vanishes on the $(n-1)$-stranded braid subgroup. In a different direction, we establish that the slice-Bennequin inequality holds with the FDTC in place of the writhe. In other words, we establish an affine linear lower bound for the smooth slice genus of the closure of a braid in terms of the braid’s FDTC. We also discuss connections between these two seemingly unrelated results. In the appendix, we provide a unifying framework for the slice-Bennequin inequality and its counterpart for the FDTC.

Let $\Gamma $ be a finitely generated group of matrices over $\mathbb {C}$. We construct an isometric action of $\Gamma $ on a complete $\mathrm {CAT}(0)$ space such that the restriction of this action to any subgroup of $\Gamma $ containing no nontrivial unipotent elements is well behaved. As an application, we show that if M is a graph manifold that does not admit a nonpositively curved Riemannian metric, then any finite-dimensional $\mathbb {C}$-linear representation of $\pi _1(M)$ maps a nontrivial element of $\pi _1(M)$ to a unipotent matrix. In particular, the fundamental groups of such 3-manifolds do not admit any faithful finite-dimensional unitary representations.

A famous theorem of Shokurov states that a general anticanonical divisor of a smooth Fano threefold is a smooth K3 surface. This is quite surprising since there are several examples where the base locus of the anticanonical system has codimension two. In this paper, we show that for four-dimensional Fano manifolds the behaviour is completely opposite: if the base locus is a normal surface, and hence has codimension two, all the anticanonical divisors are singular.

Several structural results about permutation groups of finite rank definable in differentially closed fields of characteristic zero (and other similar theories) are obtained. In particular, it is shown that every finite rank definably primitive permutation group is definably isomorphic to an algebraic permutation group living in the constants. Applications include the verification, in differentially closed fields, of the finite Morley rank permutation group conjectures of Borovik-Deloro and Borovik-Cherlin. Applying the results to binding groups for internality to the constants, it is deduced that if complete types p and q are of rank m and n, respectively, and are nonorthogonal, then the $(m+3)$rd Morley power of p is not weakly orthogonal to the $(n+3)$rd Morley power of q. An application to transcendence of generic solutions of pairs of algebraic differential equations is given.

We obtain a new interpretation of the cohomological Hall algebra $\mathcal {H}_Q$ of a symmetric quiver Q in the context of the theory of vertex algebras. Namely, we show that the graded dual of $\mathcal {H}_Q$ is naturally identified with the underlying vector space of the principal free vertex algebra associated to the Euler form of Q. Properties of that vertex algebra are shown to account for the key results about $\mathcal {H}_Q$. In particular, it has a natural structure of a vertex bialgebra, leading to a new interpretation of the product of $\mathcal {H}_Q$. Moreover, it is isomorphic to the universal enveloping vertex algebra of a certain vertex Lie algebra, which leads to a new interpretation of Donaldson–Thomas invariants of Q (and, in particular, re-proves their positivity). Finally, it is possible to use that vertex algebra to give a new interpretation of CoHA modules made of cohomologies of non-commutative Hilbert schemes.

Mukai’s program in [16] seeks to recover a K3 surface X from any curve C on it by exhibiting it as a Fourier–Mukai partner to a Brill–Noether locus of vector bundles on the curve. In the case X has Picard number one and the curve $C\in |H|$ is primitive, this was confirmed by Feyzbakhsh in [11, 13] for $g\geq 11$ and $g\neq 12$. More recently, Feyzbakhsh has shown in [12] that certain moduli spaces of stable bundles on X are isomorphic to the Brill–Noether locus of curves in $|H|$ if g is sufficiently large. In this paper, we work with irreducible curves in a nonprimitive ample linear system $|mH|$ and prove that Mukai’s program is valid for any irreducible curve when $g\neq 2$, $mg\geq 11$ and $mg\neq 12$. Furthermore, we introduce the destabilising regions to improve Feyzbakhsh’s analysis in [12]. We show that there are hyper-Kähler varieties as Brill–Noether loci of curves in every dimension.