In this paper, we give the sharp upper bound for the number of vertices with positive curvature in a planar graph with nonnegative combinatorial curvature. Based on this, we show that the automorphism group of a planar—possibly infinite—graph with nonnegative combinatorial curvature and positive total curvature is a finite group, and give an upper bound estimate for the order of the group.

Solving a longstanding problem on equiangular lines, we determine, for each given fixed angle and in all sufficiently large dimensions, the maximum number of lines pairwise separated by the given angle. Fix 0<α<1. Let N_α(d) denote the maximum number of lines through the origin in R^d with pairwise common angle arccos α. Let k denote the minimum number (if it exists) of vertices in a graph whose adjacency matrix has spectral radius exactly (1−α)/(2α). If k<∞, then N_α(d)= ⌊ k(d−1)/(k−1) ⌋ for all sufficiently large d, and otherwise N_α(d)=d+o(d). In particular, N_{1/(2k−1)}(d)= ⌊ k(d−1)/(k−1) ⌋ for every integer k≥2 and all sufficiently large d. A key ingredient is a new result in spectral graph theory: the adjacency matrix of a connected bounded degree graph has sublinear second eigenvalue multiplicity.

We construct small cancellation labellings for some infinite sequences of finite graphs of bounded degree. We use them to define infinite graphical small cancellation presentations of groups. This technique allows us to provide examples of groups with exotic properties: • We construct the first examples of finitely generated coarsely non-amenable groups (that is, groups without Guoliang Yu’s Property A) that are coarsely embeddable into a Hilbert space. Moreover, our groups act properly on CAT(0) cubical complexes. • We construct the first examples of finitely generated groups, with expanders embedded isometrically into their Cayley graphs—in contrast, in the case of the Gromov monster expanders are not even coarsely embedded. We present further applications.