We define enlargeable length-structures on closed topological manifolds and then show that the connected sum of a closed n-manifold with an enlargeable Riemannian length-structure with an arbitrary closed smooth manifold carries no Riemannian metrics with positive scalar curvature. We show that closed smooth manifolds with a locally CAT(0)-metric which is strongly equivalent to a Riemannian metric are examples of closed manifolds with an enlargeable Riemannian length-structure. Moreover, the result is correct in arbitrary dimensions based on the main result of a recent paper by Schoen and Yau. We define the positive MV-scalar curvature on closed orientable topological manifolds and show the compactly enlargeable length-structures are the obstructions of its existence.

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 give a solution to the inverse problem (given a prescribed function, find a corresponding group) for large classes of speed, entropy, isoperimetric profile, return probability and Lp-compression functions of finitely generated groups. For smaller classes, we give solutions among solvable groups of exponential volume growth. As corollaries, we prove a recent conjecture of Amir on joint evaluation of speed and entropy exponents and we obtain a new proof of the existence of uncountably many pairwise non-quasi-isometric solvable groups, originally due to Cornulier and Tessera. We also obtain a formula relating the Lp-compression exponent of a group and its wreath product with the cyclic group forp in [1,2].

In this paper, we generalize our apriori estimates on cscK(constant scalar curvature K\"ahler) metric equation \cite{cc1} to more general scalar curvature type equations (e.g., twisted cscK metric equation). As applications, under the assumption that the automorphism group is discrete, we prove the celebrated Donaldson's conjecture that the non-existence of cscK metric is equivalent to the existence of a destabilized geodesic ray where the $K$-energy is non-increasing. Moreover, we prove that the properness of $K$-energy in terms of $L^1$ geodesic distance $d_1$ in the space of K\"ahler potentials implies the existence of cscK metric. Finally, we prove that weak minimizers of the $K$-energy in $(\mathcal{E}^1, d_1)$ are smooth. The continuity path proposed in \cite{chen15} is instrumental in this proof.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate in a rather general setup how isoperimetric inequalities and lower bounds of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian can be derived from existence of a distance function with controllable