We prove the BMV (Bessis, Moussa, Villani, [1]) conjecture, which states that the function $${t \mapsto \mathop{\rm Tr}\exp(A-tB)}$$ , $${t \geqslant 0}$$ , is the Laplace transform of a positive measure on [0,∞) if$A$and$B$are $${n \times n}$$ Hermitian matrices and$B$is positive semidefinite. A semi-explicit representation for this measure is given.

We propose the notion of partial resolution of a ring, which is by definition the endomorphism ring of a certain generator of the given ring. We prove that the singularity category of the partial resolution is a quotient of the singularity category of the given ring. Consequences and examples are given.

We develop a local cohomology theory for FI^m-modules, and show that it in many ways mimics the classical theory for multi-graded modules over a polynomial ring. In particular, we define an invariant of FI^m-modules using this local cohomology theory which closely resembles an invariant of multi-graded modules over Cox rings defined by Maclagan and Smith. It is then shown that this invariant behaves almost identically to the invariant of Maclagan and Smith.

We study cluster categories arising from marked surfaces (with punctures and nonempty boundaries). By constructing skewed-gentle algebras, we show that there is a bijection between tagged curves and string objects. Applications include interpreting dimensions of Ext1 as intersection numbers of tagged curves and Auslander-Reiten translation as tagged rotation. An important consequence is that the cluster(-tilting) exchange graphs of such cluster categories are connected.

Let$d$be a positive integer, $A={\mathbb{C}} [t_{1}^{\pm1},\ldots ,t_{d}^{\pm1}]$ be the Laurent polynomial algebra, and $W=\operatorname{Der} (A)$ be the derivation Lie algebra of$A$. Then we have the semidirect product Lie algebra$W$⋉$A$which we call the extended Witt algebra of rank$d$. In this paper, we classify all irreducible Harish-Chandra modules over$W$⋉$A$with nontrivial action of$A$.