Let $(V, 0)$ be an isolated hypersurface singularity defined by the holomorphic function $f: (\mathbb{C}^n, 0)\rightarrow (\mathbb{C}, 0)$. In our previous work, we introduced a series of novel Lie algebras associated to $(V,0)$, i.e., $k$-th Yau algebra $L^k(V), k\geq 0$. It was defined to be the Lie algebra of derivations of the $k$-th moduli algebras $A^k(V)= \mathcal{O}_n/(f, m^k J(f)), k\geq 0$, where $m$ is the maximal ideal of $\mathcal{O}_n$. I.e., $L^k(V):=\text{Der}(A^k(V), A^k(V))$. The dimension of $L^k(V)$ was denoted by $\lambda^k(V)$. The number $\lambda^k(V)$, which was called $k$-th Yau number, is a subtle numerical analytic invariant of $(V, 0)$. Furthermore, we formulated two conjectures for these $k$-th Yau number invariants: a sharp upper estimate conjecture of $\lambda^k(V)$ for weighted homogeneous isolated hypersurface singularities (see Conjecture \ref{conj2}) and an inequality conjecture $\lambda^{(k+1)}(V) > \lambda^k(V), k\geq0$ (see Conjecture \ref{conj1}). In this article, we verify these two conjectures when $k$ is small for large class of singularities.

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We study large groups of birational transformations Bir(X), where X is a variety of dimension at least 3, defined over C or a subfield of C. Two prominent cases are when X is the projective space P^n, in which case Bir(X) is the Cremona group of rank n, or when X⊂P^{n+1} is a smooth cubic hypersurface. In both cases, and more generally when X is birational to a conic bundle, we produce infinitely many distinct group homomorphisms from Bir(X) to Z/2, showing in particular that the group Bir(X) is not perfect, and thus not simple. As a consequence, we also obtain that the Cremona group of rank n⩾3 is not generated by linear and Jonquières elements.

We show that the analogue of Hamilton's Ricci flow in the combinatorial setting produces solutions which converge exponentially fast to Thurston's circle packing on surfaces. As a consequence, a new proof of Thurston's existence of circle packing theorem is obtained. As another consequence, Ricci flow suggests a new algorithm to find circle packings.

Every smooth cubic plane curve has 9 flex points and 27 sextatic points. We study the following question asked by Farb: Is it true that the known algebraic structures give all the possible ways to continuously choose n distinct points on every smooth cubic plane curve, for each given positive integer n? We give an affirmative answer to the question when n=9 and 18 (the smallest open cases), and a negative answer for infinitely many n's.