We provide an exhaustive description of all simply connected positively curved cohomogeneity one manifolds. The description yields a complete classification in all dimensions but 7, where in addition to known examples, our list contains one exceptional space and two infinite families not yet known to carry metrics of positive curvature. The infinite families also carry a 3-Sasakian metric of cohomogeneity one, which is associated to a family of selfdual Einstein orbifold metrics on the 4-sphere constructed by Hitchin.

For a smooth projective toric surface we determine the Donaldson invariants and their wallcrossing in terms of the Nekrasov partition function. Using the solution of the Nekrasov conjecture [33, 38, 3] and its refinement [34], we apply this result to give a generating function for the wallcrossing of Donaldson invariants of good walls of simply connected projective surfaces with b+ = 1 in terms of modular forms. This formula was proved earlier in [19] more generally for simply connected 4-manifolds with b+ = 1, as- suming the Kotschick-Morgan conjecture, and it was also derived by physical arguments in [31].

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We obtain several rigidity results for biharmonic submanifolds in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields. We classify biharmonic submanifolds in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields and with at most two distinct principal curvatures. In particular, we determine all biharmonic surfaces with parallel normalized mean curvature vector fields in $\mathbb{S}^{n}$ .

In this paper we provide a detailed proof of the second variation formula, essentially due to Richard Hamilton, Tom Ilmanen and the first author, for Perelman’s ν-entropy. In particular, we correct an error in the stability operator stated in Theorem 6.3 of [2]. Moreover, we obtain a necessary condition for linearly stable shrinkers in terms of the least eigenvalue and its multiplicity of certain Lichnerowicz type operator associated to the second variation.