Let X be an equivariant embedding of a connected reductive group X over an algebraically closed field X of positive characteristic. Let X denote a Borel subgroup of X . A X -Schubert variety in X is a subvariety of the form $\diag (G)\cdot V $, where X is a X -orbit closure in X . In the case where X is the wonderful compactification of a group of adjoint type, the X -Schubert varieties are the closures of Lusztig's X -stable pieces. We prove that X admits a Frobenius splitting which is compatible with all X -Schubert varieties. Moreover, when X is smooth, projective and toroidal, then any X -Schubert variety in X admits a stable Frobenius splitting along an ample divisors. Although this indicates that X -Schubert varieties have nice singularities we present an example of a non-normal X -Schubert variety in the wonderful compactification of a group of type X . Finally we also extend the Frobenius splitting results to the more general class of X -Schubert varieties.

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This is the first of a sequence of papers proving the quantum invariance under ordinary flops over an arbitrary smooth base. In this first part, we determine the defect of the cup product under the canonical correspondence and show that it is corrected by the small quantum product attached to the extremal ray. We then perform various reductions to reduce the problem to the local models. In Part II, we develop a quantum Leray--Hirsch theorem and use it to show that the big quantum cohomology ring is invariant under analytic continuations in the Kähler moduli space for ordinary flops of splitting type. In Part III, together with F. Qu, we remove the splitting condition by developing a quantum splitting principle, and hence solve the problem completely.

We give a short proof of Penner-Grushevsky-Schumacher-Trapanis large genus asymptotics of Weil-Petersson volumes of moduli spaces of curves. We also study asymptotic expansions for certain integrals of pure \psi classes and answer a question of Mirzakhani on the asymptotic behavior of one-point volume polynomials of moduli spaces of curves.

This is the second of a sequence of papers proving the quantum invariance for ordinary flops over an arbitrary smooth base. In this paper, we complete the proof of the invariance of the big quantum rings under ordinary flops of splitting type. To achieve that, several new ingredients are introduced. One is a quantum Leray--Hirsch theorem for the local model (a certain toric bundle) which extends the quantum D module of Dubrovin connection on the base by a Picard--Fuchs system of the toric fibers. Nonsplit flops as well as further applications of the quantum Leray--Hirsch theorem will be discussed in subsequent papers. In particular, a quantum splitting principle is developed in Part III which reduces the general ordinary flops to the split case solved here.